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^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ( | 




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DIALOGUES AID RECITATIONS 



ADAPTED TO 



THE CHILDBEDS 




•r- 



AND OTHER FORMS OF 



USEFUL AND LIBERAL INSTRUCTION, 



By Mrs. LOUISA SHEPARD. 




"A Child in the household is a well-spring of pleasured 

— Tdppi 



CLEVELAND: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SPIRITUALIST PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
NO. 2 SOUTH WATER STREET. 

1871. 



tfKi 



Is* 



DEDICATION 



To the bright Spirits who originated the beautiful system 
of instruction, The Children's Progressive Lyceum ; to 
that noble man and spiritually-developed soul, ANDREW 
Jackson Davis, through whom it was given to mortals — to 
the faithful workers, Officers and Children of the Lyceum 
everywhere — and to Childhood, as the flower-budding 
'.mart-center of pure exalting Spiritualism, this little volume 
is dedicated by the Author. 



i according toacl of Coi i the year l-7l, by 

A. A. WHEELOCK, 
n the Offl< i the Librarian of Congress, nl Washington. 



CONTENTS. 



Dedication, - - 2 

Opening Lyceum Song — By Emma Tuttle. - 5 

CHAPTER I. 

Conversation between a Leader of a Lyceum and its 

Members, - - - - - 7 

Spiritualism, - - - - - - 11 

What are we Laboring for? - - - - iS 

What makes us Beautiful ? - - - - 20 

What do we Want? ----- 20 

Goodness, - - 22 

The Old and the New, 25 

Who and What is God ? Part First, - - 30 

" " "■ Second, - - 32 
Conversation between a Sabbath School Teacher and 

a Pupil, - - - 34 

Home to Mother — By Mrs. C. F. Corein. - 37 
CHAPTER II. 

Everything is Breaking up. - - - - 39 

" " " Part Second, - 44 

" " " " Third, - . 47 

Making Your Mark, - - - - 51 

Doing Your Prayers, - - - - "56 

Marriage, ---___ 58 

Helping God, - - - - . 63 

Difference in Opinion, 67 

Spiritual Freedom, - . . . - 68 

The Seeds and the Sowers. 77 

CHAPTER III. 

A Conversation between Aunt Chloe, and her Nephew 

and Niece, - - - - -78 

" Part Second, S7 

The Necessities of Life, - - - - 90 

A Conversation, - . _ _ . 97 

Part Second, - 100 

Benevolence, - - - . . 101 
A Sure Guide, --.._. I0 4 

Closing Lyceum Song— By Emma Tuttle. - 106 



OPENING LYCEUM SONG-. 

INVOCATION. 



BY EMMA TTTTTLE. 



O, ye who once were mortals 

Enrobed like ns in clay, 
Come down from Heaven's blue meadows, 

And be with, us to-day ! 
Instruct us, loving angels. 

The way your glory came, 
And wreath about our foreheads 

Truth's glowing ring of flame. 

Bring down a breath of Eden, 

And let us breathe it in, 
Till its surpassing sweetness 

Makes us forget to sin. 
Our hearts are mounting upward 

Like singing larks in Spring, 
And every soul is willing 

To learn the truths you bring. 

Come down, oh, blessed angels, 

Make Earth and Heaven one, 
And when our paths are shadowed, 

Be ye our rising sun. 
Unfold us in God's wisdom, 

His beauty and His love, 
And may the Earth-life fit us 

To be like you above. 



DIALOGUES AND RECITATIONS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

COVERSATION BETWEEN A LEADER OF A LYCEUM AND ITS 
MEMBERS — SPIRITUALISM — WHAT ARE WE LABORING FOR ? 
— WHAT DO WE WANT? — GOODNESS — THE OLD AND THE 
NEW — WHAT MAKES US BEAUTIFUL ? — WHO AND WHAT IS 
GOD? PART FIRST— PART SECOND— CONVERSATION BETWEEN 
A SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHER AND A PUPIL. 



CONVERSATION BETWEEN A LEADER OF A LYCEUM 
AND ITS MEMBERS. 

Mary. — I hear people talk about a Saviour. What 
is a Saviour; how can we be saved, and what 
shall we be saved from ? 

Leadei . — My child, we need to be saved from ig- 
norance. Knowledge is our Saviour, and that only 
can save us from physical and mental suffering. 

Mary. — Is education and knowledge the same 
thing? 

Leader. — Not exactly ; education represents the 
ways and means, and the act of acquiring knowledge, 
while knowledge is something acquired or gained. 

Katie. — Must we have education to be civilized ? 



8 Dialogues and 

Leader. — Education is the main spring to civiliza- 
tion, to all reform ; it is the stepping stone to know- 
ledge, wisdom, virtue and true greatness. 

Mary. — Is knowledge like a savings bank 1 

Leader. — Knowledge is truly a savings bank, and 
the best we can find. That is — to empty our purse 
into our heads, by getting a thorough education, 
gives us the best capital we can possess. It is always 
at our command, and cannot be exhausted or squan- 
dered. 

Julia. — Is that the only way to make noble men 
and women ? 

Leader. — In no other way can we approach true 
greatness, for knowledge is the only currency of the 
celestial spheres. 

Mary. — Will the time ever come when people will 
be valued according to the intelligence they possess 
rather than their money'? 

Leader. — The time will come, when all will be 
measured by their minds and not by their purse; the 
mind is like the treasure spoken of in the Bible, "that 
moth and rust doth not corrupt nor thieves break 
through and steal." 

Katie. — Is knowledge inexhaustible? 

Leader, — Yes, give all you will, and you never 
have the less. 

Mary. — Is licit education which is taught in our 
schools ? 



Recitations. 9 

Leader. — What is commonly called education em- 
braces a routine of study adopted in our schools and 
colleges, for they are stepping stones to a higher ed- 
ucation of principles. Our schools and colleges dis- 
cipline the mind to action, develop the power to 
think, and thus aid in presenting new forms of truth 
to the world. 

Julia.— If we do nothing to aid and assist mankind, 
will the world be any better for our living in it ? 

Leader. — We can only make the world better by 
a thorough knowledge of ourselves, and of nature, 
and learn how to make ourselves and those around us 
happy. 

Mari/. — Is there any dhTerence between soul and 
spirit ? 

Leader. — Yes, there is ; although the learned 
theologians have never found it out. I will explain 
it by the walnut : — The shuck is the body, the soul is 
the shell, the meat is the spirit. 

Katie. — Is. a thing any the more true because we 
affirm it .to be so 1 

Leader. — We may have a thousand conjectures, 
and make a thousand affirmations upon any subject, 
but if we put them all together they never establish a 
single truth. 

Julia.— Should we not be content to talk about 
things we can know, and not be always fretting about 
things we never can comprehend ? 



10 Dialogues and 

Leader. — Yes, far better ; as it is impossible for 
limited, finite minds, to calculate with certainty, the 
beginning or end of matter, or the Great first cause, 
however desirous and ambitious they may be of 
doing so. 

Mary. — Can we reason only from what we know? 

Leader. — Scientific research must and will settle all 
differences of opinion. 

Katie. — Does it make an idea any the more true by 
its being generally believed ? 

Leader. — A truth is none the more true for its 
being generally received, or false for its being stren- 
uously rejected. 

Julia. — Will it be a happy time for earth's children 
when all cease to endorse the old rites and foolish 
superstitions of the past? 

Leader. — Indeed it will be a glorious time for hu- 
manity when all shall be governed by reason, rather 
than blind faith, in religion as well as all other 
things. 

Mary. — What is death ? 

Leader. — There is no death? What is called death 
is only change ; a dropping of the curtain to the 
scenes of this lite preparatory to the new and more 
beautiful scenes of the same life in spirit. 

Katie. Ave not the Christian sects keeping man 
buck from great scientific truths, leaving the world 
to find tliem out ;is best they <'«'H> • 



Kecitations. 11 

Leader. — Yes, shame on them, to wish or try to de- 
prive mortals of the illumination of science— God's 
most radiant sunlight — and thus rob knowledge of 
its chiefest glory. 



SPIRITUALISM. 

Charley. — Uncle, what is Spiritualism; Avhat is its 
object and its use? 

Uncle. — Tt is to bring mortals into communion with 
higher intelligence, from whom they may receive 
wisdom and instruction on every subject pertaining 
to man's happiness and well being. 

Charley — Will that elevate humanity ? 

Uncle. — Its influence is to raise humanity from its 
present plane of ignorance, selfishness and sensuality, 
to a more heavenly one of intelligence and Spirit- 
uality. 

Cliarhy. — What does Spiritualism embrace? 

Unc'e. — The whole domain of mind, in this life and 
also in spirit life. 

Charley. — Is it a philosophy ? 

Uncle — Yes, it explains the attributes of Deity, the 
beautiful order and harmony of everything in nature, 
and the relation existing bet ween those on earth, and 
those in spirit life. 

Charley. — Does Spiritualism teach us that we are 
immortal ? 



12 Dialogues and 

Uncle. — Yes, and from no other source have we 
positive proof of eternal life. Spiritualism teaches 
that by the law of growth, — not of grace — good 
works — not high sounding professions — is our divine 
nature unfolded and what the true relation of the 
spirit is to the physical. 

Charley. — Is present Spiritualism like Bible Spirit- 
ualism ? 

Uncle. — It is the same in principle, but differing 
somewhat in manifestation ; though in the main the 
phenomena are the same. It has an Infinite Spirit 
of Goodness, and spirit messengers to bring it into 
the world, and infuse its principles into the spirit of 
man. It arouses inquiry ; refers all things to reason, 
rather than blind faitli ; and utterly discarding mir- 
acles, shows that all spirit manifestation is in har- 
harinony with the natural law of cause and effect. 

Charley. — If there is communication between spirits 
in the form and those that have left it, what evidence 
have we of it V 

Uncle. -There are two kinds of evidence in Spirit 
ualism. The external and the internal. One who 
has received both, cannot, will not, doubt its truth, 
Might as well doubt his own existence. 

( 'harley. — How can we know when we have receiv- 
ed the internal evidence, as you call it? 

Uiich. — ]>y the soul's intuitions, or what is more 
properly called the process of inductive reasoning. It 
is the highest form of knowledge. 



Kecitaticws. 13 

Charley. — Should we receive all that comes to us 
as truth ? 

Uncle. — No ! we ought not to receive anything as 
incontrovertibly true, until we have demonstrated it 
to be such, no matter from what source it comes. 

Charley. — How can we distinguish the false from 
the true? 

Uncle. — Only by the exercise of that God-like pow- 
er, reason ; with which mankind are happily en- 
dowed. 

Charley. — Is it the mission of those that come 
from the spirit-land to teach mankind new truths and 
to break the shackles of error? 

Uncle. — Yes ! and it is indeed a glorious mission, 
to aid in bringing the sunlight of truth into bigoted 
minds, thereby dispelling the darkness of error, caus- 
ing its gloomy cells to radiate with truth's practical 
teaching, as an emanation from the divine mind. 

Charley. — Should that teach us to love our friends 
and euemies ? 

Uncle. — Yes! did you ever try to love an enemy 
exactly as you do a friend ? That you could not do. 
Nor is it required; but to feel no ill-will, no revenge, 
and be willing to do them a kindly act whenever it is 
in our power, is what is meant by loving our enemies. 
C tarley. — Can we always do this? 
Uncle. — Each one is capable of doing this, when 
hatred and prejudice is removed from their minds. 



14 Dialogues and 

Charley. — Should we condemn others if they do 
not think as we do ? 

Uncle. — By no means. Condemn not others if 
they do not think as you do, or see with your eyes 
as each must receive the truth when presented ac- 
cording to their understanding of it ; else it is not 
received. 

Charley.— Should we not, then, be patient one with 
another f 

Uncle. — Yes; and remember that the soul of him 
who has received the largest amount of truth, will 
manifest the largest charity. 

Charlie. — Can you explain the philosophy of the 
prophet's power? 

Uncle. — Yes, by Spiritualism. Those who have at- 
tempted any other explanation have invariably been 
confounded, and have shown an utter inability to 
make it other than spirit power. 

Cha7*lie. — When an individual is charged with an 
offense, is he not deemed innocent until he is proved 
guilty? Is the same spirit of justice manifested to- 
wards Spiritualism by its opponents? 

Uncle. — Certainly; in law and in justice every 
individual must be considered innocent until proven 
guilty. As regards Spiritualism, without investiga- 
tion many pronounce it a fraud, and only worthy of 
contempt. 

Charlie. — What is the cause of their skepticism? 



Eecitations. 15 

Uncle. — The Bible has been held up by the Chris- 
tian world as being the only reliable authority and 
teaching man's future existence. But as intelligence 
increased, it lead to a critical examination of these 
claims and the Book, which disclosed not only many 
contradictory passages, but the plain and undeniable 
fact, that the Book, instead of being of Divine origin 
was of human origin — that instead of being God's 
Book it is man's Book — man made and man devised 
— which discovery created a wide-spread skepticism, 
so that before the advent of modern Spiritualism, a 
majority of educated and intelligent minds had no 
substantial faith in the existence of the soul after 
death. 

Charlie. — Are all creeds founded on the Bible % 

Uncle. — Yes; and the conflicting of these creeds 
destroying one another, compel every thinking mind 
to reject everything in religion that does not appeal 
directly to reason, convincing the understanding and 
judgment. 

Charlie. — Is there a necessity of a general mani- 
festation, at the present time, of spirit life beyond 
the grave to prove the future existence of the soul ? 

Uncle. — Yes; and does not modern Spiritualism 
do this for all who give it a fair and thorough trial ? 
We have yet to learn the first instance of a failure, 
while its facts establish beyond a doubt the future 
existence of man, its philosophy harmonizes with his 



16 Dialogues a^d 

reason, and satisfies the highest aspirations of his 
nature. 

Charley. — What does Spiritualism teach ? 

Uncle. — It teaches me, first, to be a humble seek- 
er after truth; second, that the great life-power, 
and good of all things, is God ; that it pervades all 
space throughout all extent ; that it is in all things, 
giving it life and power. 

Charley. — Should that teach me to earnestly wish 
to know and do what is right, and to be truthful to 
myself and just to all men ? 

Uncle. — Yes it should teach us charity, truth and 
wisdom. Charity to forgive trespasses, and the 
weaknesses and shortcomings of all. 

Charley. — Do spirits, who have left the earthly 
body, know T what we are doing? 

T^ncle. — Yes, and they sanction and encourage 
our most humble efforts and desires for good, and 
thereby we are enabled to renew our strength, and 
be prepared for greater responsibilities. Tliey whis- 
per into our souls the assurance that every pure de- 
sire, every noble deed, however unknown, shall not 
pass without its influence on others, as well as our- 
selves. They bid us despair not; but with pure 
hearts, clear minds, and unfaltering purposes, press 
on bravely in the great battle of lite, opposing evil 
and error, which shall be overcome at last by the 
good and the true. 



Recitations, 17 

Charley. — Does Spiritualism enable us to see all 
persons and all things as they are, while we are per- 
mitted to judge none with severity ? 

Uncle. — Benevolence and charity shall wield their 
influence over the warring elements of evil, and vir- 
tue shall yet reign enthroned above vice. 

Charley. — Must we labor until we fall ? 

Uncle. — What though we fall on the battle field, 
death is disarmed of all terror, and wreaths of im- 
mortality shall crown the spiritual warrior's brow. 
We should live worthy at all times of being welcom- 
ed home by angels. 

Charley. — Is there a better day coming ? 

Uncle. — Yes, the day is fast coming when this 
world will be more like heaven. Love and harmony 
shall reign. The good spirits give us this glorious 
assurance. 

Charley. — What are the effects of Spiritualism. 

Uncle. — The teachings of Spiritualism, as proved 
by its effects, are most salutary and beneficial. 
Its principles are world-wide and all-embracing in 
their application to the varied conditions of human 
life. When truly lived, it brings health to the body ; 
a harmoniously developed power of reason to guide, 
and the spirit thus freed from the darkening veil of 
creeds and popular superstitions, beholds the glory of 
God revealed in Nature, and in human life, as the 
highest and divinest manifestation thereof. 



18 Dialogues and 

Charley. — Is life made more holy ? 

Uncle. — Yes, Spiritualism makes life more holy 
and beautiful, for it gives us unmistakable proof of 
immortality- Our capacities and affections point to 
a progressive destiny, and Ave hear the voice of our 
own souls mingling with the sweet spirit voices of 
the loved ones gone before, c.illing us forever on- 
ward and upward. 

Charley. — Is it safe to trust to this simple faith ? 

Uncle. — It is not a faith simply, it is knowledge ; 
and there is perfect vest in the sublime truth ; for we 
know that not an aspiration born within the soul, but 
has a corresponding answer ; and this divine illumi- 
nation of the spirit i-; ever seeking expression, action, 
and demanding freedom. Blessed Spiritualism! A 
safe guide to mortal feet through the devious paths 
of life; so gloriously illuminating its dark and thorny 
ways ; so divinely vindicating the loving Father's 
eternal and unchanging laws. 



WHAT ARE WE LABORING FOR f 

Henry. — Brother John, what are we all laboring 
for? 

John. — All minds agree upon one question, name- 
ly: mankind ought to be better than they now are; 
to this end all institutions of government and reli- 
gion arc established. 



Kecitations. 19 

Henry. — What does the Christian preacher labor 
for? 

John. — The Christian preacher claims this to be 
the end and aim of his life's labor, and that God 
gave the Bible, and Christ to die on calvary to make 
mankind better. 

Henry. — Why are so many costly churches built 
all over the land, and clergymen employed to preach 
in them eveiy Sunday at such high salaries ? 

John. — The same answer comes, to make man- 
kind better. 

Henry. — Ask the lawyer the aim and end of the 
law. 

John. — He takes the priests' words in his mouth, 
and says, to make mankind better. 

Henry. — Ask the reformer why he so untiringly 
labors to tear down these time-honored institutions. 

John. — He returns the same reply, to make man- 
kind better. 

Henry. — Ask the spirits why they turn back in 
their upward flight from this world, to give us les- 
sons of love and charity and mercy. 

John. — Still comes the same response, to make 
mankind better. 



20 DlALOUGES AXD 

WHAT MAKES US BEAUTIFUL? 

Jane. — What a homely little creature ! 

Katie. — She will be beautiful in heaven, I'm sure. 

Jane. — Will she, indeed ! I would like to know 
how you can tell that ? 

Katie. — In the other life, the good are beautiful, 
and the evil are deformed and homely. 

Jane. — How do you know that? 

Katie. — Any one that opens their eyes, may see 
and know that it will be true ; is not the most beau- 
tiful face rendered disagreeable when any bad pas- 
sion is exhibited, and does not the homeliest face 
become pleasant to look on, Avhen goodness 
makes it beautiful ? And she will be beautiful in 
heaven, for she is a good litte girl, homely as she is. 



WHAT DO WE WANT? 

Susan. — Mother, where do the Christians say we 
must look for salvation ? 

Mother. — The Christian sees in the Bible with 
Christ as a savior from and sacrifice for sin, the only 
way whereby mankind can be made better. 

Susan. — Where does the Rationalist look for sal- 
vation ? 

Mother, — The Rationalist sees the cultivation of 
knowledge, and the exercise of reason, the only 
means of salvation. 



Eecitatioks. 21 

Susan. — Where does the Moralist look for sal- 
vation ? 

Mother. — In the daily practice of good works. 

Susan. — Where do the Spiritualists look for salva- 
tion. 

Mother. — The Reformers, including the Spiritual- 
ists, look for the world to be regenerated, only 
through the clearing away of all the old beliefs, 
creeds and institutions, that a new universal system 
may be reared which will meet the wants of all hu- 
manity. 

Susan. — What do the Spirits from the other life 
seek to do to elevate humanity 1 

Mother. — They seek to tear out from beneath our 
feet the old platforms, laid down years ago, and com- 
pel us to step up higher. 

Susan. — What does the Church say to that 1 

Mother. — The church says, not one step can you 
take from this infallible platform, the Bible, lest you 
fall into hell. 

Susan. — What does the Intellectual Student re- 
quire ? 

Mother. — The Intellectual Student requires some- 
thing more than imagination or faith on a subject of 
such vast importance, and not finding any rational 
philosophy taught in the schools, he graduates an 
Infidel. 

Susan. — What do we all want ? 



22 Dialogues and 

Mother. — We want something more rational than 
dreams; something more philosophical than the al- 
leged physical resurrection of Christ, and something 
more reasonable than a blind faith in the theological 
dogmas for evidence of a future life. 



GOODNESS. 

Mary. — Mother, are all things good ? 

Mother. — Yes, my child, they are surely good and 
precious gifts, and we should improve them for the 
general good, as the great giver has given them, be- 
lieving that nothing was ever created in vain. 

Mary. — Did that power that formed me and gave 
me reason, give it to lead me astray and then punish 
me torever for it ? 

Mother. — No, my child, I cannot believe such in- 
consistencies. Nature, or whatever it may be, must 
be just and good, and would not do such cruel 
deeds. 

Mary. — Must we all do our own work ? 

Mother.— Yea, every man and woman has his or 
her own work to perform, and we must work it out 
single-handed. 

Mary. — Are we all different, and is our work dif- 
ferent? 

Mother. — In a greater or less degree we see and 
feel differently, we think differently, and we judge 
differently of what is our duty. 



Recitations. 23 

Mary. — Have we a right to do so ? 
Mother. — Yes, so long as we do not trespass on the 
rights of others. 

Mary. — Should we try to teach others ? 
Mother. — Yes, we may help one another, do good 
to each other, and teach each other in all things, but 
we should first, be sure that we are right, before we 
undertake to teach others ; there should be no beam 
in our own eye when we undertake to cast the mote 
out of our brother's eye. 

Mary. — Should we learn to love mankind as broth- 
ers and sisters ? 

Mother. — Yes ! be kind and charitable to all, for 
we do not know of their birth, their education and 
moral training and their susceptibility to surrounding 
influences which help to shape and mould their cha- 
racter. 

Mary. — Do all influences attract as the needle to 
the pole ? 

Mother. — Yes ! we cannot see why the needle 
points northward, or southward, but we know it 
does. Neither do we know why a man is led to get 
drunk, or to steal when he has plenty of everything 
he needs. 

Mary. — Does the power within them lead them 
on? 

Mother. — It leads all differently ; and that should 
teach us charity. 



24 Dialogues and 

Mary. — Is lightning and thunder, though terrible 
at times, needful ? 

Mother. — Yes ! they bring a healthy condition 
to the atmosphere ; so are all of what we call evils ; 
they are only relative or comparative good, though 
we may not see it. 

Mary. — Is the great life-power, and good of all 
things, God, and does it fill all space ? 

Mother. — Yes, it pervades all space, everywhere, 
throughout all extent. 

It is in all things, giving life to all things, all 
seeming evils are only parts thereof, and should 
teach us truth, charity and wisdom to forgive the 
short comings of all. 

Mary. — Should we investigate all things before re- 
ceiving them as truth or rejecting them as falsities. 

Mother. — We should investigate, seeking for truth 
earnestly, wishing to know and do what is right in 
all tilings, truthful to thyself, truthful to the great 
spirit, and just to all men. 

Mary. — Should we learn these truths? 

Mother. — Yes, let us know these things ; how ele- 
vating the tendency. While the beloved Angels are 
sending forth messages of divine love to Hll our souls 
with light and love for humanity, all selfishness 
lust, pride and hale must sink before the clear-seeing 
eye of heaven. 

Sarah. — Who beholds us'/ 



Recitations. 25 

Mother. — A sainted father or mother, brother or 
sister, child or friend, stands by us, like an ever 
present sentinel of God. 

Sarah. — Will such a belief prepare us better for 
the future ? 

Mother. — Jn view of the eternal destiny, openufg 
in the future, who can squander the priceless mo- 
ments of time, or prostitute to base purposes the 
God-like energies of our being ? 

Sarah. — Will that teach us to value time ? 

Mother. — Yes, we shall see that this life is too 
short for its discipline to be lost, and its opportuni- 
ties too brief and precious to be exchanged for cheat- 
ing baubles. Oh, ye messengers from the land im- 
mortal, lend us your aid, that each soul, conscious of 
its eternity, may rise with higher, holier aspirations. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

A Conversation between two Sisters. 

Lillie. — How strange things seem, they say we are 
standing to-day on the verge of the old and looking 
into the new, and everything is in commotion. 

Sarah. — Yes, and this is a fitting time to look back, 
review our lives, to see what we have and what we 



26 Dialogues and 

have not done, and to settle our accounts with the 
past and see what account we have to render to it. 
Has it brought bright hojDes or heart-achings ; joy or 
sadness ? Have helpless age and pleading poverty- 
held forth their hands to us in vain ? Have we re- 
fused the cup of love to those that ask it, and sent the 
poor starving soul with curses away ? Have we help- 
ed to plait, a crown of thorns for our sister's brow and 
sent her with bleeding feet and broken heart up the 
mount of crucifixion ? We in ust interrogate our own 
souls, and see if we have been true to ourselves and 
faithful to our friends, for the world moves. 

Lillie. — Yes, Sarah, the world moves, but it moves 
backwards. There once was a time when people had 
some confidence in each other ; but it is not so now. 
In olden time societies settled a minister for life, no 
one thought of ever dismissing him ; his word was 
law to the people. And when one married they mar- 
ried for life ; no one thought of a divorce ; they took 
eacli other for better or worse, faults and all. But 
now, courtship and marriage are carried on by con- 
cealing every defect and exhibiting every attraction. 
Blinded by superficial accomplishments, young peo- 
ple attend gay parties — parade in broad-cloths, silks 
and satins — study poetry, French and novels— fall 
violently in love— and after two or three years of 
wedded life, they apply for a divorce. 



Kecitations. 27 

Sarah. — Yes, sister, humanity is throwing off 
needless restraint, and ignores authority, and is con- 
stantly struggling for individualization. Some in all 
ages have been too eager iu grasping after new ideas, 
and thus have become unbalanced. Truth is thelaw,- 
although some reach after it without knowing how to - 
apply it. Truth upon some souls is like a strong 
light upon weak eyes ; some are able to receive more 
truth than others without losing their equilibrium. 
But when a soul is striving after truth, that which is 
accepted by it must be the fullness of truth to that 
soul, until demonstrations bring something more 
clear and truthful. Thus we see the world moves, 
and man is becoming more true to his brother man, 
and thus developing and manifesting more of his re- 
ligious nature. 

Lillie. — The relations existing between man and 
man, are called morality ; they are not religious ; — 
both Protestants and Catholics hold that religion is 
something between God and man. Religion is be- 
lieving in the Bible, vicarious atonement, and being 
born again. 

Sarah. — No, sister, the grand idea of life is to find 
out what our duty is to each other, and do it. Feed- 
ing the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to 
the thirsty, caring for the poor, needy, suifering ones 
of earth, will secure us admission into the kingdom 



28 Dialogues and 

prepared for such from the foundation of the world. 
It matters not whether we believe in one bible or 
many bibles ; one religion or many religions ; one 
church or many churches ; one Savior, many Saviors, 
or no Savior — for love to God and humanity and 
strict obedience to the physical, mental, and spiritual 
laws of our being, is all the salvation we need. 

Zdllie. — Well, sister, we read that Satan will be 
let loose for a season, and I think that time has real- 
ly come, for the world has forsaken the God of their 
fathers and gone after strange Gods. Your father, 
grandfather, or your great-grandfather, never taught 
any such doctrines, and why should people be so 
much wiser to-day ? 

Sarah. — J San to-day, by virtue of the law of pro- 
gress, is vastly superior, intellectually and morally, 
to the men of any other age or generation, conse- 
quently they are le*s bigoted and intolerant If we 
may not know anything that our grandfathers did 
not know, how are we to progress? 

Zdllie. — But people are now mixing up religion 
with temporal things; and with nature; setting aside 
all miracles and claiming that every thing is govern- 
ed by law, as though man were a part of God, and 
religion was something we could learn. 

Sarah. — Yes, sister, Ihe bright gifts of knowledge 
can only come by experience. We are born into 



Recitations. 2$ 

this world, and will find the object of life to be, amid 
the changing experiences of repeated failures and 
successes, our spiritual growth and development, 
thereby securing all the wisdom and happiness possi- 
ble to attain while in the body. 

Lillie. — We have great reason to fear that the 
blind are leading the blind, and both will fall into 
the ditch ; and they will find their mistake when it 
is eternally too late, and will end in eternal perdi- 
tion. 

Sarah. — Man begins to realize his nobility, his 
manhood, and boldly asks for light, more light. 
And though the ignorant and bigoted cover their 
eyes, and cry with holy horror, "Humbug!" and 
"Devil !" it does not frighten or deter him. Truth 
is his object, and wherever it calls he will sure- 
ty go- 

Lillie. — Man needs and must have some restraining 
influence over his passions and inclinations to evil ; 
he needs the fear of personal punishment to deter him 
from crime. Thus God says, "The wicked shall go 
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
into life eternal." 

Sarah. — That was Moses' God, a God of wrath — 
Christ's God was altogether a higher personage — a 
God of love and peace. Yes, the world moves. So 
we see from Moses to Christ, humanity has gradually 



30 Dialogues and 

advanced. Man only needs restraints while in an un- 
developed condition, a condition of childhood; while 
in that state it may render him good service, but 
when sufficiently developed to comprehend the God 
within man, ho will be law unto himself, and in obe- 
dience to hib own nature practising love, mercy and 
forgiveness. The Christian world, in this day, pro 
fess aii undying love for Christ and his teachings; 
and rest all their hope of future happiness on Him, 
yet never make a practical application of them, but 
content themselves with preaching Christ and practi- 
cing Moses. 



WHAT IS GOD? PART I. 

Hose. — Who, what, and where is God, and how 
can we worship hirnV 

Mother. — My child, (iod is everywhere; there is 
no place where he is not; there is nothing that has 
not the seal of Divinity upon it. 

Mary. — Is God a being, or is he a principle? 

Mother. — God is impersonal. The God-power, or 
life-power, is everywhere. I believe in worshiping 
all that is worthy of worship; it it is (lie flower, let 
us worship that ; it it is a lofty thought, let us wor- 
ship that; or, if a human soul, let us worship wher- 
ever we nee anything that seems to Ufi divine. 

Many, — What is progression? 



Eecitatiojsts. 31 

Mother. — Progression, to me, is simply change. 
The sonl progresses in cycles, as does life. It regen- 
erates itself again and again, ever revolving round 
its centre, God, and at each revolution takes on newer 
life, exhibits more perfect attributes, stretches out 
farther into infinity, and becomes wiser and holier. 

Mary. — Is temptation necessary to progression? 

Mother. — Yes, because temptation, when rightly 
understood, is the propelling power by which intelli- 
gence of all grades must progress. 

Hose. — How came the idea into the world that 
sin could be removed by sacrifice ? 

Mother. — Minds in an undeveloped state, know 
that sin must be removed; there must be some power 
by which wrong can be overcome. The old method 
was by sacrifice, either human or otherwise. 

Mary. — How can Jesus be the sacrifice for all sin f 

Mother. — When Jesus came, he was said to be the 
sacrifice for all humanity, that all might be saved 
through him. They mistook the letter for the spirit , 
the body for the inner life. 

Rose. — How can this idea of sacrifice be removed 
from the minds of the people ? 

Mother. — By natural and spiritual growth, and in 
no other way; an idea that is forced into the mind 
before it has gr wn large enough to receive it, will 
never bear any fruit. Remember, "he that is con- 



32 Dialogues and 

vinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." 

Mary. — Have we the power to be good enough 
here, in this world, to be always happy? 

Mother. — Certainly not; nor would it be well for 
us always to be happy. The sonl needs the discipline 
of unhappiness, in order to know what happiness is. 

Mary. — Is there a sphere of knowledge outside 
and independent of organized minds, into which we 
may enter and receive knowledge and instruction? 

Mother. — All the wisdom that belongs to the men- 
tal sphere, belongs to the hum;m sphere; the wisdom 
of God is the combined wisdom of all intellectual 
life. 

tfose. — Is there as much evil existing in the spirit 
world a< there is here? 

Mother. — Death does not change us ; it only t ikes 
away the external shell and leaves the man precisely 
the same. The spirit world finds you precisely where 
this lays you down. You (To not become a saint on 
entering the spirit world, when you have left this 
world a sinner. 



FAIT II. 

Rose . — Ho w can we find Clod? 

Mother. — Whatsoever is, is (Jod, and ever must be. 
Spirit is above all external form, as right is 
above wrong. 

Mary. — What is evil? 



Eecitatio^s. 33 

Mother — What we call evil is only our limited 
conception of what is embraced in universal good. 
It is a limited or lesser good ; as there cannot be light 
without darkness, heat without t old, summer without 
winter, so positive and negative forces must exist 
All is good, but all is not ) et fully understood. 

Hose. — Must we always be learning'? 

Mother. — We are made to iearn, and when we shall 
have so learned as to know what to do, and do what 
we know, we need not be afraid of any evil. 

Ma/ry. — Are we always subject to conditions? 

Mother. — It is an absurdity to expect to attain any 
good without complying with conditions. 

Mary. — How is it that persons living in this world 
can commun : cate with those gone to the spirit world? 

Moilier. — Spirit is a positive force, matter negative. 
That being true, spirits can just as well communicate 
after leaving the form, having made thems lvt : s ac 
quainted with the law, as persons can communicate 
with those who have changed their earthly homes. 
The soul possesses unlimited power, but it does not 
know of its possession ; only by degrees can it con- 
trol the forces which belong to itself. 

Mary. — On entering spirit life, does the soul pos- 
sess all wisdom ? 

Mother. — Only step by step can the soul climb up 
the ladder of eternal wisdom. Just so far as the soul 



34 Dialogues and 

understands itself, and its relations to its surround- 
ings, can it control those surroundings, and no 
farther. 

Rose. — How can we pray best ? 

Mother. — Beecher says the best prayer for a poor 
man is a loaf of bread and a few kind words. 

Mary. — What is justice ? 

Mother. — Justice is a basic element of infinite life ; 
it is divinest law, mightiest power, purest love, 
highest wisdom, teuderest mercy, the essential, God. 

Mary. — Is there any infallible rule of right and 
wrong, by which all can be governed alike ? 

Mother. — There is no special rule of right that will 
apply to every individual alike ; there are no two 
blades of grass exactly alike, no two leaves alike, all 
the petals of the flowers differ, all the stars differ ; 
then how can we expect to erect one general stan- 
dard of right for all ? It cannot be done. 



CONVERSATION BETWEEN A SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHER 
AND A PUPIL. 

Teacher. — Henry, I want you to lemember the 
Sabbath day to keep it holy. 

Henry. — Is the Sabbath better than other days? 
Tea her. — Yes, the minister says it is God's day. 
Henry. — Are not all days God's days? Whose days 



Eecitatioks. 35 

are they if that is God's day more than the rest 1 
Why didn't he make it different, so we may know it 
when it comes? 

Teacher. — The Bible says God rested that day 
from all his works. 

Henry. — Didn't God make all things? 

Teacher. — Yes. 

Henry. — Then why don't he have the things which 
he has made, rest? The grass grows, the water runs, 
the birds sing, the lambs play, and I can't see any 
difference in the days. 

Teacher. — The Bible says it is God's day and it is 
holy time. 

Henry. — But who made the Bible — where did we 
get it? 

Teacher. — God's inspired ministers. 

Henry. — Then it is the ministers' Bible and the 
ministers' day, is it? Don't they work? What 
day do they earn their living, if it isn't that day? 

Teacher. — The ministers preach that day, to save 
souls. 

Henry. — But their Bible says, "Work out your own 
salvation." 

Teacher. — The ministers say that the Sabbath is 
the clergyman's working day ; that it was given to 
Christians, and when they receive Christ into their 
souls, they receive the Sabbath. 



36 Dialogues and 

Henry. — Then all who do not receive Christ as 
their Saviour, are not bound to keep the Sabbath. 

Teacher. — The day is peculiarly adapted to our 
growth in grace. We all want to do what we can 
for Jesus. 

Henry. — Does Jesus progress for as? If he does, 
it would be wise to keep that day ; if not, then we 
have no time to lose, for every moment is precious to 
labor for ourselves and the best good of humanity, 
in the way that will do the most, good to the greatest 
number. 

Teacher. — Then you don't regard the Sabbath as 
holy time? 

Henri/. — Not more than other days. All days are 
holy time to me, for all days are precious to prove 
all things and hold fast to that which is good, seek- 
ing earnestly for wisdom to know and do what is 
righl to myself and all humanity. 



Eecitations. 37 

Home to Mother. 



BY MRS. CAROLINE FAIRFIELD CORBIN. 



[The mother of the writer has four children in the Spirit 
world, from whom she received a message not long since, that 
they had always spent many happy hours in their mother's 
home ; that from infancy, whatever had been their occupation, 
their happiest vocation had always been to "go home to 
mother."] 

We have one mother, four of us 

Still linger in earth's shadows, 
And four are singing in the light 

That floods the heavenly meadows. 
But still their song comes faintly down 

Distinct from every other, 
"We study, work, then take our rest, 
And all go home to mother. 

Home to mother, home to mother ; 

Our day's work done, the guerdon won 
We all go home to mother." 

We seek the culture of the spheres 

We gather heavenly treasure, 
Of knowledge, wisdom and delight, 

And love beyond all measure ; 
But still one joy remains for us 

More blessed than all others, 
We gather in one happy band, 

And all go home to mother. 
The years are passing, in that face 

So noble and so tender, 
Earth's shadows fall ; yet through them gleams 

Somewhat of heavenly splendor ; 
And soon 'tis we, who linger here, 

Shall weep with one another, 
And whisper through our falling tears, 

We shall go home to mother. 



38 Dialogues and Recitations. 

Home to mother, home to mother, 

Our life work done, and heaven won, 
We'll all go home to mother. 

There in some mansion large and fair, 

Some dwelling-place immortal, 
Our mother's heavenly home shall be, 

And Love shall guard the portal. 
And when we all hare reached that shore, 

Four sisters and four brothers, 
We'll join in one unbroken band, 

And .all go home to mother. 

Home to mother, home to mother, 

Oh ! speed the happy, happy day, 
When we are all with mother. 

— Lyceum Banner. 



CHAPTER II. 



EVERYTHING IS BREAKING UP— MAKING YOUR MARK— DOING 
YOUR PRAYERS — MARRIAGE — HELPING GOD — DIFFERENCE 
OF OPINION — SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 



EVERYTHING IS BREAKING UP — PART FIRST. 

Julia. — I hear people say everything is breaking- 
up ; what does that mean ? 

Leader. — It means the drifting away of the flood- 
wood floating on the sea of society. 

Julia. — But are not most people in society con- 
scientious in their professions ? 

Leader. — Men and women join in church, join in 
marriage, wheel in with political parties, eat and 
drink, walk and talk, love and hate, more as though 
they were governed by surrounding circumstances 
than by the deep convictions of their own God-given 
natures. At the present time we seem nearing a 
fearful crisis in Society, Church, and State ; and 
there are evils, errors, slanders and corruptions 
which seem ripening for a general disruption. On 
what party or sect can we look for an improved con- 
dition of our race ; where can we look for help un- 
less we turn our eyes heavenward and call on the 
hosts of living Angels, who from the higher sun -lit 



40 Dialogues axd 

realms of spirit-life are enabled to look clown and 
penetrate causes lying deeper than mortal vision 
can scan ? 

Julia. — But is not the Church able to control the 
evils of society ? 

Leader. — The present condition of the church is 
universally conceded to be unstable, unsafe, and fast 
tending to decay. It is rapidly waning among ad- 
vanced minds. Intelligent doubters and unbelievers 
are rarely reached, and popular preaching is power- 
less over the masses. The young are fast outgrow- 
ing the dogmas of the past, and will not be hamper- 
ed with old creeds and teachings. Give us some • 
thing new, is the demand of the day. 

Julia. — Is not the church and its doctrines the 
means of salvation. 

Leader. — Popular churches are supported more on 
the score of policy, convenience and self-interest, 
than on the ground of absolute utility as means of 
grace and salvation, and but few are looking to them 
as a re luge from immorality, ii religion and infidelity. 
Where are the safeguards of the Church, while 
crimes are repeatedly perpetrated beneath the ample 
folds of her pious cloak, which almost turns the 
cheek ol* darkness pale ! 

Julia.. — l)ii I cannot we look to our politics for 
ety 



Kecitatioxs. 41 

Leader. — Politics, judging from the dominant 
parties, give little hope. Demagogues are rampant ; 
shameless bribery and untold political iniquity seem 
to be the order of the day ; while through sophistry 
and deception the people are made the dupes of vile, 
designing politicians, seeking office and power, to line 
their pockets and live in ease. Even the capital of 
the nation is stained with the blood of martyrs, and 
the political course of all the dominant parties seem- 
ingly is tending downwards. 

Jidia. — Cannot we trust in the popular opinion ? 

Leader. — Our popular society, in the main, is a 
sham ; whoever can show off the best, takes the first 
place. Superficial wit, gossip, silk and satin, are al- 
ways at a premium price. Lord save us from the 
bore of society ; give us a crust of bread with one 
true friend, in a shanty, rather than a parlor full of 
sofa-cushion dandies primmed up with soulless ac- 
complishments. Society, as it now is, is a place for 
the practice of hypocrisy, and the concealment of 
hearts and souls. 

Julia. — Will society ever change ? 

Leader. — Society moves slowly. It is well that 
it should. It is well that old established forms and 
ceremonies should be girded round by conservatism, 
as it prevents rashness and too great haste in matters 
of reform. 



42 Dialogues akd 

Julia. — But are we all constantly changing % 

Leader. — Yes, we live by change ; the spirit can 
complete its growth only by the law of change. 
It becomes allied to organized matter, and expresses 
its conscientiousness by that means. The spirit 
passes out of its external covering and enters the 
soul — the spirit body, by a given law, as it enters 
its physical body, — and on these conditions and pos- 
sibilities of life, through the law of change, death is 
robbed of its sting ; the grave cheated of its victory ; 
while the spirit passes on to higher experiences in 
spirit life. 

Julia. — Shall we always retain our identity ? 

Leader. — You are constantly changing in devel- 
opment and growth, but not in identity. You are 
not the same yon were a year ago, morally, mentally, 
spiritually, or physically ; you are constantly chang- 
ing in expression. 

Julia. — How shall we know our friends if we 
change continually ? 

Leader. — There is an identity of the spirit which 
is always retained. 

Julia. — Do we retain the same affection for our 
friends we have here ? 

Leader. — The human affections are subject to 
change here and in spirit life. 

Julia. — Why is it that good people differ so much 
in opinion? 



Kecitatioks. 43 

Leader. — It is perfectly in harmony with the un- 
developed state of human life ; when the soul is fully 
unfolded and comes to learn all the laws by which it 
is surrounded, it will then understand that it cannot 
possibly inflict suffering on others without suffering 
itself; that the curses which are sent out to rest 
upon others, will return with vengeance upon our 
own heads; and when we come to know this, we 
shall learn to exercise love and charity. 

Julia. — But how can this be brought about ? 

Leader. — Every one of us must be a worker, every 
hand must be raised to help on the car of progress. 
God assigned it to us when he gave us powers, ta- 
lent, energy and intellect. Every one of us 
should fill some place advantageously. If 
the gifts of fortune are showered on you, that you 
need not labor, think of the poor ; think of the help 
less woman surrounded by piteous little children 
huddled together in hunger, nakedness, filth and ig- 
norance, and she compelled to leave them to seek 
employment. There is your place to work, as teach- 
ers of the poor, as missionary angels in the haunts 
of darkness. Lament not that the world is full of 
wrong, so long as you keep your hand back from 
helping to establish the right. 

Julia. — How can we know what is right, while 
everything is breaking up, and good people differ 
so much? 



44 Dialogues axd 

Leader. — If you ask for your rights, commence by 
giving others their rights. 

Julia. — Can women do anything to help on the 
car of progress ? 

Leader. — Women are the saviors of the race — 
they hold in their right hand the destiny of nations ! 
By a proper education of sons and daughters, the 
mothers of this land need not lament that their chil- 
dren occupy the position in society of mere specula- 
tors in matrimonial match-making ! All true mo- 
thers will correct this and save their children from 
so lamentable and degrading a position. 

Julia. — Can girls work ? 

Leader. — Yes, work, work, teach. This blessed 
gospel of angel ministration made practical, will lift 
all burdens, heal all sicknesses, reconcile all antipa- 
thies, quicken all souls, lead all reforms, mould all 
laws, crown all with their God-given rights, feed all 
souls, dry up all tears and brighten the pathway of 
each and every being up to the homes of the blessed. 



EVERYTHING IS BREAKING IT — PAET SECOND. 

Jitlia. —Mother, is the Church reforming the 
world ? 

Leader. — All things have their use ; the existing 
dispensation of laws, customs and institutions have 
their use; Still, men and women must be more en- 



Kecitatiozsts. 45 

lightened in preparation for the new, before they can 
reject the old. 

Julia. — Is the Church losing its influence ? 

Leader. — In every age of agitation we need have 
no fears of aught that stands on a solid foundation. 
Houses, homes, compacts, parties and churches, built 
on the rock of eternal truth, shall stand the test that 
time is making of all things, growing more beauti- 
ful and useful with the passing ages. Wendell 
Phillips says, " Everything is breaking up." 

Julia. — If everything "breaks up" will not anar- 
chy reign ? 

Leader. — While these conditions of Church, State, 
and Society, are every day becoming more and more 
apparent, many are growing perplexed and alarmed 
at its final results; — a fearful crisis seems impending! 

Julia. — But what is the cause "? 

Leader. — It is the inevitable consequence of the 
progressive spirit of the age. Old ideas are fast 
passing away. Individualism is being manifest more 
and more. It is being demonstrated that past cus- 
toms and institutions destroy a true sense of indivi- 
dual responsibility. 

Julia. — Is the present any better % 

Leader. — The present dispensation seeks rather to 
address the inner consciousness of the individual 
soul, as the highest and most absolute authoritv; 



46 Dialogues and 

while it proclaims the supremacy of Deity, the influ- 
ence of the angel world, and the fraternity of man, 
it appeals to the higher law written in the intelli- 
gence of humanity and to the court of reason, as 
final authority. 

Julia. — What is the cause of the present state 
of things ? 

Leader. — While the multitude have been held so 
long under false authority and enslaving restraints, 
in view of individual liberty proclaimed by this pre- 
sent dispensation, no marvel many should suffer a 
rebound to the opposite extreme, and repudiate all 
laws. In rejecting false authorities and unjust res- 
traints, there is a tendency to reject all authority and 
all restraint. In throwing oft* the yoke of tyrannical 
laws there is a tendency to reject all law ; and in 
breaking loose from the trammels of false creeds and 
forms, there is danger of rejecting all beliefs and all 
religious order ; in escaping from false social cus- 
toms, many are liable to break loose from all health- 
ful restraints, and claiming individual license for 
freedom, reckless in regard to results, society, the 
church, and state, are constantly giving evidence of 
the licentiousness, corruption and crime that have 
been gathering under the cloak of each, and which 
are thrown to the surface by the struggle of individual 
souls, for larger liberty and more truth. 



Kecitations. 47 

Julia. — But what shall we do? Shall we conceal 
our lights, deny our liberty, and turn love into hate 
because men abuse these divine gifts ? 

Leader. — No ; let us rather seek to establish the 
principles we profess, and appropriate them to a le - 
gitimate reform. What if they are liable to abuse ; 
so is the sunlight and air of Heaven. Light and lib- 
erty are the legitimate inheritance of all. Better 
these were enjoyed, though now and then abused, 
than that humanity should be kept in false, ignoble 
servitude. 

Julia. — Are there not those who will almost en- 
tirely disregard every reasonable restraint ? 

Leader. — Yes, but there are those who need this 
liberty, and know how to use it for their own good, 
and the good of humanity. 

Julia. — Have we anything to do in this great 
work of reform? 

Leader. — Yes, we have each a noble work to per- 
form, and one requiring all the energies of our 
nature. 



BREAKING UP — PART THIRD. 

Julia. — Are we connected here, with more than 
one life? 

Leader. — Yes, we are living here in this world, 
three distinct lives : the life which belongs to the 
animal world, thaf which belongs to the spiritual 



48 Dialogues and 

world, and that which belongs to the soul, or divine 
life — three in one ; that is the trinity which is yet 
to be understood. 

Julia. — Is there to be a new order of things ? 

Leader. — Yes, but God still reigns, the earth re- 
joices, and humanity is safe in the light of this dis- 
pensation. The law of conjugal love, of true mar- 
riage, of home harmony and the relations existing 
between parents and children, are being understood, 
so as to reveal the falsities, and the causes of the in- 
fernal discords of the past, and inspire a hope of a 
new era, in which men and women shall overcome 
all that is at war with genuine conjugal relationship; 
and why should we fear the result? 

Julia. — Should we not be anxious to keep our 
reputation good f 

Leader. — That is well, but it is more important 
that our lives, hearts and motives should be good, 
our aims lofty and unselfish, and let our reputation 
take care of itself. 

Julia. — Must God's law be written on our hearts? 

Leader. — God's law is written by angel hands, in 
every fibre of our being. 

Julia. — Is the time coming, spoken of in the Bible, 
that will try men's souls? 

Leader. — The time is fast coming when the revo- 
lutions now upheaving the old order of things, will 



Kecitations. 49 

try every one as by fire. It is now as it was when 
Jesus walked the earth centuries ago : the elements 
are coming in fearful conflict, agitation is stirring the 
deep waters covering the face of humanity, and divi- 
sions and dissensions are dividing church and society, 
in preparation for the kingdom of heaven which is 
at hand. 

Julia.— Leader, did you say that everything is 
breaking up? 

Leader.— Yes ; kingcraft and priestcraft are pass- 
ing away before the rising intelligence of the people, 
who will not trust in the purity and perfection of any 
political party or religious sect. No party now in 
existence, affords a broad platform on which the en- 
tire race can stand, claiming their God-given rights. 

Julia. — Are not our social lawsjright ? 

Leader. — Our social customs and compacts are but 
a compromise of convenience, and the divinest affec- 
tions are bartered in the shambles of false public 
sentiment. 

Julia. — Is there nothing to be trusted? 

Leader. — No; not without question. We are in 
the midst of agitation, rocking the religious and so- 
cial world, demanding an utter change in many of 
the existing laws, customs and institutions. 

Julia. — How can we serve humanity best in this 
time of trial? 



50 Dialogues and Recitations. 

Leader. — The time has come when we are called 
upon to speak and act independently, and in seeming 
violence to the feelings of those nearest and dearest 
to our hearts ; and if we are misunderstood, and for 
a time made to suffer the deepest sorrow, it has been 
thus with all true, noble pioneer souls. 

Julia. — Shall we have our reward ? 

Leader. — Yes ; we are to find our highest recom- 
pense in the consciousness of speaking and acting 
according to our highest conviction of duty. If in 
doing this, we come in conflict with the evils and 
errors of the world, we are to remember the greater 
need of our firmness, freedom, fortitude and heroism. 
The world can be redeemed only as we meet these 
falsities face to face, and rise above them in spite of 
all opposing influences. Millions are groaning in 
social, civil and religious bondage, from which they 
can never be saved unless Messiah souls of this dis- 
pensation stand forth as examples of Heroism, clothed 
with the armor of God, and the spirit-world recog- 
nizing God as father of all humanity, as equal in 
dignity and divinity, of origin and nature; man as 
immortal in communion with Deity and the angel 
world, beneath whose inspiration he is called upon 
to speak and act, in accordance with his own un- 
brammeled reason. 



Recitations. 51 



MAKING YOUR MARK. 



Sman. — Mother, I hear people talk of making their 
mark, what do they mean ? 

Mother. — My child, it is to do something to benefit 
the world, to be remembered when we have passed 
out of it. There are at the present time, a goodly 
number of men and women engaged in the great 
work of reform; there have been many efforts made to 
harmonize the world ; religion, schools, societies, 
houses of correction, all of which is so much testi- 
mony of human progress; yet, while we discover, 
here and there improvements, we are compelled to 
acknowledge that their labors have mostly failed to 
accomplish wiiat they have designed. We discover 
as one great reason for their failure, that mankind 
have labored to reform, while they have overlooked 
the first great principles necessary in human eleva- 
tion ; which is a proper knowledge of the requisite 
conditions for the birth of a healthy child, with a har- 
moniously balanced elemental force of mind, from 
which, as being organic, true manhood and woman- 
hood alone can come. 

Susan. — If I was rich I should love to go out into 
the world, and do something for humanity, and make 
my mark. 

Mother. — My child, the greatest gift of God lies 
within the hands and hearts of his people. All the 



52 Dialogues and 

world needs, is to know how to help themselves ; open 
the treasures of industry and learning to the commu- 
nity and you open a mine richer than that of gold. 
Teach them how to find their own treasures, and that 
each one must obtain whatever wealth of mind they 
possess by their own efforts. 

Susan. — But why is it that all do not try to make 
others happy, while by so doing they would make 
themselves happy ? 

Mother. — My child, they do not see it so. The 
prime cause of evil and error in the world, is due to 
inherited evil propensities, originating in corrupt and 
inharmonious conditions before birth. 

Susan. — But cannot we teach them, and make them 

better ? 

Mother. — To try to teach a child who is badly born 
is like attempting to straiten a crooked tree. 

Susan. — But who is responsible for these things 
while we are ignorant and undeveloped ? 

Mother. — It is false modesty, prndishness which, 
allows people to discuss freely in public, in the fami- 
ly and in private, the most approved means of pro- 
ducing the finest specimen of the horse, the ox, the 
sheep, the dog, and even the hog: but when you call 
their attention to man, that highest, most wonderful 
and crowning form of life in (Jod's universe, and talk 
about elevating him by teaching him the uni- 
versal laws which govern reproduction, Mrs. Grundy's 



Eecitatioks. 53 

indignation is aroused. — she gathers all her forces, 
mounts her war horse of wounded modesty, and so 
securely and effectually guards the encampments of 
ignorance, that those who would break in upon them 
are compelled to retreat: 

Susan. — How can humanity ever rise to a proper 
comprehension of life and philosophy with such a load 
of prejudice and ignorance? 

3Iother. — By educating the masses, teaching them 
there is nothing too sacred to he investigated. 

Susan. — When I hear people talk about great 
minds doing so much good in the world, I am dis- 
couraged it is so little I can do. 

Mother. — My child, we are not expected to do 
great things ; it is the many little things that make 
up great results. If we all do a little a great deal 
will be done. We must not be discouraged because 
we cannot do more, and so do nothing. We must 
do good little by little until everything is good with 
which we are connected. 

Susan. — But there are many things in the way of 
doing good. We cannot accomplish much. 

Mother. — You will find that your life will be very 
much like your garden. There will be storms that 
will seem very terrible to you, but they all have their 
purpose ; there will be winds that will sweep over 
you ; but they will all eventuate in some good, just 



54 Dialogues and 

as in Nature there are ample provisions for your 
flowers, so has the law of an Infinite and Universal 
Intelligence, of which you are a part, provided for all 
the events of your life, if you only desire to be good 
and try to learn, for we can never know so much but 
what we can learn something more. 

Susan. — Is man as perfect in his sphere as the 
lower order of creation ? 

Mother. — It is a well understood law of nature that 
for every form possessing life there are natural pro- 
visions for the complete expression of that life ; that 
its highest possible development may be attained in 
obedience to that law. The farmer sows his seed, 
knowing that its life will find full expression and 
reach its ultimate in the ripened grain. Take any of 
the beasts of the field and you will find none where 
the requirements of their nature are not complied 
with, which gives evidence of this grand and universal 
truth. 

Susan. — Is mail the only creature that de- 
sires a future life? 

Mother. — Man alone has those aspirations of soul 
that outlive all earthly possibilities, demanding a 
change from earthly forms. Does nature give com- 
pleteness to every form of life except human, and 
then leave the highest and most finished of all her 
Creatures to -light out' 1 their existence in sorrow 



Eecitations. 55 

and despair ? Does she give contentment and hap- 
piness to the brute and stamp despair on the brow of 
man? Does she place inferior forms where their 
lives find full expression, and then leave the higher 
to feel a want that can never be satisfied ? Man's con- 
sciousness demands a future state of existence. The 
brute does not possess it, — or at least never mani- 
fests a desire for a future existence. Man has capa- 
cities and powers fitted for another condition of life. 

jSusan. — Why is it that every one cannot see 
spirits ? 

Mother. — Because all do not possess the same or- 
ganization, capacities and powers. The power to 
see spirits depends upon the possibilities organic in 
the physical body. If these exist in any individual 
their spirit will be enabled, under favorable condi- 
tions, to see " clairvoyantly ;" or with spiritual sight 
will see spirits. Spirits communicate with mortals by 
speech, by sight, by inspiration, and by various 
other methods in the form of " tests." 

Susan. — I want to be inspired, and do something- 
for humanity, and make my mark. 

Mother. — The mind which is most active, gives to 
those around it, which are in a more passive and re- 
ceptive condition, the thoughts which are in that 
mind. Inspiration depends as much upon the paciv- 
ity of one mind, as the thoughts to be communicated 
by the other. 



56 Dialogues and 

" In the quarry if you toil, make your mark ; 

If you delve upon the soil, make your mark; 

In whatever place you stand, with a firm and honest hand. 

Make your mark, make your mark " 



DOING YOUR PRAYERS: 

Johnny. — Mother, I wish God would bless poor lit- 
tle children who have no beds to-night, it is so cold. 

Mother. — You want God to bless them, but what 
will you do for them % 

Johnny. — When I get all the money I want, and 
have some to spare, I will give them some. 

Mother. — But we never get all the money we want, 
we always want more ; what will you do for them 
now ? 

Johnny. — T would work and buy them some bread, 
if 1 could. 

Mother. — They would, starve while you are work- 
ing. 

Johnny. — I have one shilling, I will give them half 
of it, wouldn't that be right ? 

Mother. — What can you do with the other half ? 
that will do you ;is much good as it would them, when 
they have do bod and nothing to eat? 

Johnny. — Well, then, I will give (hem the other 
half, for I can do without candy better than they can 
do withoui something to eat, and I wish I had more 
for them. 



Recitations. 57 

Mother. — You will feel happier when you lie down 
in your soft bed, thinking your money has helped 
some other poor child to a bed, who has no father or 
mother, and good angels will watch over you more 
lovingly for your kindness of heart. 

Jane. — Mother, what do we live for, and what do 
we go to the Lyceum for ? 

Mother. — We live to gain experience, knowledge 
and wisdom, and we go to the Lyceum to learn how 
to get it. 

Jane. — Must we learn all we know? 

Mother. — All we kn ow we have to learn. Do these 
boys think there ever was a time when our Legisla- 
tors, Congressmen, and President, did not know any 
more than they do now ? Do these girls ever think 
that our great and " strong-minded women " have to 
learn all they know, just as you do ? 

Jane. — Do we all come here to learn? 

Mother. — Yes, and we never shall know so much 
but what we can learn something more. 

Jane. — Will any of these boys ever be great men ? 

Mother. — These boys and girls are soon to be the 
leaders of the Nation. Its destiny will soon rest in 
their hands. It is for them to say whether they will 
be great and honored, and the nation prosperous and 
happy. 

Jane. — Have we commenced a life which will never 
end? \ 



58 Dialogues axp 

Mother. — Yes, my child, you have commenced an 
existence which is never to terminate. You are al- 
ways to live. This earthly life is the commencement, 
and by the beautiful law of change, it is continued in 
spirit life. All we learn here, we shall not have to 
learn there. 



MARRIAGE. 

Mary — Mother, we have been talking about get- 
tin s married. What do vou think of it? 

Mother. — It is all well enough to marry, if you 
only marry right. 

Mary. — I shall marry for money — that is right 
enough for me. 

R 0sem — Well, I shan't ; I shall marry to be useful 
in life. That is the way God has designed us to live. 
That is according to nature. The Bible says, God 
created them male and female, and desired they 
should live together. 

Viola.-— I shall marry for love. I think love ought 
to be the ruling element If we get love, we can 
work for money ; bul if we marry for money, it is 
hard working for love, and sometimes hard to get it. 

Mother. — You have all expressed your opinions 
freely, and I am glad to hear it. Now I will express 



Recitations. 59 

mine. Young people often make a very light thing 
of marrying, and often have but one object in view. 
You should count the cost. 

3fary. — It don't cost but little to get married, only 
enough to pay the priest, and that John will pay ; he 
is rich. 

Mother. — You may think, my daughter, it costs 
more, when you have tried it awhile. There are 
many things to be considered in a contract for life. 
If you many only for money, riches often take wings 
and fly away. If there is no iove only that bought 
with money, when poverty comes in at the door, 
love flies out at the window. 

Rose. — I wish to take a sensible view of life, and 
look to all its duties and responsibilities. We cannot 
expect all sunshine. It takes many things to make 
up life ; many joys and many sorrows. 

Mother. — Yes, my daughter. You take a very ra- 
tional view of things. I am happy to see you so 
reflective. Things put on such a false appearance in 
this world, we hardly know what we are dealing* 
with. All certainly wish to do well, but they differ 
in opinion and in judgment. It is very important 
that those who are going to marry, should study each 
other's disposition ; if they have a mild, kind dispo- 
sition, be careful to keep it so by your kindness to 
them. Remember "a continual dropping will wear 
away a stone." 



60 Dialogues axb 

Viola. — I think love is the lever that will eventu- 
ally move the world. Love smooths all the rough 
places of life, calms all the stormy tempests, subdues 
the most stubborn, obstinate will — covers all imper- 
fections — drives away all fear and jealousy — cheers 
us up under all sorrow and misfortune — harmonizes 
all conflicting elements, and makes a heaven on 
earth. That is the way I wish to live, and if I wish 
to be loved, I will try and make myself lovely. 

Jlotlier. — Well, my daughter, I rejoice in your de- 
cision. You have chosen the good part which may 
never be taken from you. God grant all your de- 
sires may be realized. 

Mary. — I don't agree with Viola. She thinks love 
will do all things. I suppose she would be willing 
to marry a beggar for love. I think I will marry 
John. I don't l»ke him very well, lie is not very 
agreeable; then I don't think he has a very good 
di-position. He is rather old. and he is not hand- 
some, but he is rich and there is no living in this 
world without money, you know. I don't like to 
work very well or very hard; I can then live at my 
ease, spend all the money 1 want, and if John scolds, 
J can scold hack, and if we have a fuss now and 
then, it won't, make much difference, only keep up 
appearances and put on a smooth face when any one 
conies in. Rich men, you know, are apt to be very 
close, and if lie scolds because 1 spend so much 



Recitations. 61 

money, I will provoke him to do something, then I 
will apply for a divorce. You know the law gives a 
bounty on a woman being ugly. A good wife can 
have only the use of one-third of her husband's prop- 
erty, even when he is dead, and nothing while he is 
alive, only what he sees fit to give her — not even if 
she earned it all. The law says she has a claim on 
one-third ; let her apply for a divorce and she will 
get her third, and she can do what she pleases with 
it, and get rid of her old man to take care of. 

Mother. — My daughter, you know this is a world 
of probation. We are all compelled to take the con- 
sequences of our own deeds. 

Itose, — I am more and more convinced we should 
live to be useful, not only to seek our own happiness 
but the happiness of those around us, and if we pro- 
fess to believe in justice, we must practice it. As I 
look upon life, I am convinced that true marriage 
is the highest and best form of human society, and 
that the duties and responsibilities connected there- 
with, best prepare us for usefulness here, and for en- 
joyment in the life hereafter. 

Seba. — Mother, I have been listening to hear you, 
and Rose, and Mary and Viola talk about getting 
married, and I have come to the conclusion that it is 
not best to marry. It is safest living in single bles- 
sedness. This losing one's individuality, and I might 
say, identity, I don't think much of. While unmar- 



62 Dialogues axp 

ried you are free ; your time, your talents, your earn- 
ings, are all your own. As soon as you are married, 
your identity is lost in the person of your husband ; 
he is the legal owner of your time and the avails of 
it; you are entitled simply to food and clothing. 
You may be clothed in purple and fine linen — that 
depends on the kindness of your husband. And 
that is not all — a married woman has no children — 
they all belong to her husband ; he can bind them 
out, give them away, appoint guardians at his death, 
and all without her consent; and when he dies, then 
comes the wormwood and the gall. The faithful 
wife and patient mother is entitled to the use of one- 
third, if she has any children, and that she cannot 
dispose of! Although she may have earned or in- 
herited every cent of the property, it is no longer 
hers. Hence, this is in effect, a bounty paid for not 
having children, or committing crime by destroying 
them! The childless are invested with rights of 
property which are wholly denied to those who have 
children. If that is what you call justice in the mar- 
riage relation, I do not care to invest in it. Count- 
ing up all the cost, as mother says, I think not best 
to marry. 

Mother. — My children, this is an age of individ- 
ualization. We must gain all the knowledge we can, 
and try to make the best use of it. The trials of life 
are many and severe, but we need the discipline to 



Kecitations. 63 

develop us as perfect men and women. This life is 
only om* primary school; these are only our first 
lessons of life. If we only study to be wise, we 
shall come out all right. It takes many storms and 
many tempests to make the tree grow strong and its 
foundation firm. We are only just commencing to 
live, and we have a long eternity in which to develop. 



HELPING GOD. 

John. — Can poor, weak humanity help God, who 
is all power ? 

Teacher. — Yes, there are a great many ways in 
which we can help God. When a man makes two 
blades of grass grow where only one grew before, he 
helps God, and blesses humanity by increasing the 
beauty and productiveness of creation. 

John. — Is it helping God, to make the trees 
beautiful and the world good ? 

Teacher. — Can there be a higher aim or diviner 
purpose in human life than to help God in all His 
ways and works; to help him point mankind by the 
colors of heaven to a life of purity and love % Can 
life be consecrated to a more worthy purpose ? 

John. — But does God need the help of mortals to 
accomplish his plans? 



64 Dialogues and 

Teacher. — God gives the raw material, but leaves 
to man the task of working it up. 

John. — How is that ? 

Teacher. — Where the florist, by his careful cul- 
ture, changes the simple wild rose into all the variety 
and beauty of those queenly flowers, which crown 
with their loveliness and perfume, the month of June, 
he helps God unfold the possibilities which are hid- 
den by the wayside blossoms. 

John. — But is not God's work a spiritual work ? 

Teacher. — Yes, all things are spiritual. When the 
gardener takes a rough piece of ground and trans- 
forms it into a smooth lawn, with short, shining turf, 
handsome shrubs, winding walks, blooming flowers 
and sparkling fountains, he has been helping God 
and humanity, just as truly as though he had con- 
verted a soul. 

John. — Is there no difference between physical 
work and spiritual work ? 

Teacher. — Yes there is a difference, and yet there 
is such an intimate and divine relationship between 
the physical and the spiritual that when you help 
one you help both. So that whoever helps man 
helps God. 

John. — Does not God require of us special wor- 
ship of himself? 

Teacher. — Every farmer who reclaims a swamp, 
every one who, with flowers and trees and green 



Kecitations. 65 

grass, beautifies an unsightly place ; every child who 
tends a vine in the garden, is a partner with God in 
making glorious and lovely this sublime temple of 
the universe. 

John. — Does not God require of us a greater work 
than to help beautify this world ! 

leacher. — Not only does man help God by adding 
to the beauty of this world, but he assists in in- 
creasing its fruitfulness and its use. Man cultivates 
and develops nature, and enhances the value of her 
products. 

John. — Do science and invention aid God and 
humanity in spiritual things ? 

Teacher. — Yes, God gives the human body, and we 
clothe and ornament it; God gives us two feet and 
we add to this primal means of locomotion the steam- 
ship and the railroad car • God gives two hands, and 
we multiply them by endless and intricate machin- 
ery, until they spin and weave, with marvelous dex • 
terity, various fabrics and forms. 

John. — Are we co-workers with God in all that 
we do? 

Teacher. — Certainly we are. God gives the eye; 
we supplement it by the microscope, searching the 
mysteries of life; the telescope, unfolding the won- 
ders of space, God gives thought ; we train and 
discipline it, and organize it into science; we print 
it in books; we discover by it elemental forces which, 



66 Dialogues and 

with the speed of lightning, transmit our ideas 
across continents and under seas. Thus are we co- 
workers with God, filling this world with use and 
beauty. As in nature, man must help God before 
all its beauties are unfolded, so in moral and physi- 
cal things. 

John. — Then God cannot win battles unless we 
fight under his banner. 

leacher. — No, the divine kingdom will not come, 
except through human endeavors. Whenever we 
strive for right; whenever we stand for truth, or en- 
courage virtue or goodness; whenever we think a 
high thought, speak a noble word, do a worthy 
deed, we help God. Help him make man better, 
help him spread truth and righteousness, help him 
bring in the reign of peace and love. 

John. — But we are weak mortals, and can do but 
little. 

Teacher. — We may think we are weak, but there 
is a spot somewhere we can keep bright — a heart 
somewhere we can comfort — a child somewhere we 
can guide and teach. What an ennobling thought, 
that we are co-workers with God; that our faithful- 
ness makes us true noblemen and women in this life. 



Eecitations. 67 

DIFFERENCE IN OPINION. 

Ida. — What is the use in toiling all one's lifetime 
to get a living ? I don't believe in it. Father is rich, 
and he can support me without work. Let Minnie 
work ; she is not as pretty as I am. It won't hurt her 
for she is homely. There is no use in my soiling my 
hands. People say I am handsome, and a gentleman 
told me the other day, I was a perfect doll. I can 
study French and Latin, and play on the piano, and 
be admired, and marry some rich nabob some day. 
Let those work who are obliged to — I shan't. 

Minnie. — Somebody must work, and I feel proud 
of being able and willing to make myself useful. It 
is the meanest thing I can think of, to wish others to 
do for us what we are ashamed or unwilling to do 
for ourselves. Ida is handsome ; what has she to 
boast of? Who made us to differ? — and beauty is 
but skin deep after all. 

Katie. — I do not see as nature is very partial after 
all. If Ida has the beauty, Minnie has the good 
sense, which is much more to be admired. Who 
does not admire one who has a kind, loving heart ; 
ready to grant to others all they ask for themselves ; 
willing to make sacrifices cheerfully for the good of 
others ; loving to learn all that is useful ; and who 
tries to make the best use of what they learn, and do 
good because they love to be good. 



68 Dialogues and 

Julia. — I do not think it is best to go to extremes, 
neither all work nor all play, for we have three na- 
tures to care for — physical, intellectual and spiritual. 
Physical — take good care of your health ; intellectual 
— lay up a good store of useful knowledge ; spiritual 
— which is wisdom — study to be wise, for "wisdom's 
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace." 



SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 

Mary. — Mother, what is the meaning of "spiritual 
freedom," that I hear you so often speaking about? 

Mother. — It means the breaking down of those dis- 
tinctions which are now kept up as walls of partition 
between man and his brother; and in their stead 
shall arise a new social structure, in which peace, 
freedom, and social equality shall be the ruling ele- 
ments ; when man, in his enlarged individual self- 
hood, shall be a law unto himself, with a full and 
practical recognition of the brotherhood of the race. 

Mary. — What will accomplish all this ? 

Mother. — Xothing short of Spiritualism, in its 
broadest application, can raise man from his present 
plane of antagonism and intolerance, to so high and 
godlike a position, in the earth-life. It is the reli- 
gion of freedom. 



Eecitatio^s. 69 

Julia. — Can we believe what the God within us 
cannot comprehend ? 

Mother. — No. Spirits are endeavoring to free the 
mind from the traditionary legends of the past, and 
the accumulated rubbish of age?, thus laying the 
foundation of the truly magnificent edifice of reason 
and science. 

Julia. — Do not spirits teach us that all things in 
their time are right % 

Mother. — Yes, but the law of progress forbids that 
the soul should slumber on in peaceful rest, satis- 
fied with the beliefs of yesterday. 

Julia. — Is light breaking in upon the human 
mind, and do all trials forward us in wisdom and 
knowledge ? 

Mother. — Not one ray of sunlight has ever fallen 
upon the world; not one frozen flake of snow has 
ever come down from the clouds ; not one joy has 
come to the human heart, out of place ; not one sor- 
row has borne down the human soul, without its use ; 
not a truth has ever reached the human mind, out of 
time and place ; not one error has prevailed, but ex- 
isted in obedience to the law that gave it birth and 
being. 

Julia. — Has the world always been in error and 
ignorance ? 

Mother. — Yes, but it has gained strength in the 
meantime, to lise in might and gain the victory. 



70 Dialogues axd 

Julia. — But has the world always rejected its sav- 
iors, and those who taught higher truths? 

Mother. — Jesus taught the truth ; so did Thomas 
Paine, but the world was not ready for them. It 
had not gained the condition necessary to adopt their 
truth, and so it slumbered on. 

Mary. — Is there a clearer recognition of the truth 
to-day than ever before ? 

Mother. — Yes, and so far as we are able to perceive 
it, it is our duty to accept and live up to it. The 
glory that awaiteth the world, surpasseth the under- 
standing of man. Earth will be changed to heaven, 
and heaven to earth, and love that "worketh no ill to 
his neighbor," will become the law. 

Julia. — Do all hope to reach the kingdom of eter- 
nal glory ? 

Mother. — Yes, this is the natural expectation 
of all mankind. What is heaven, my child? Did 
you ever ask yourself the question ? If so, have you 
not shuddered to think that you despise the ways of 
heaven in every selfish act, in every ungenerous 
thought? 

Mary. — "Would there be any heaven to us, while 
we are selfish, to be suddenly transported to an abode 
where all is purity and love \ 

Mother. — No,my child, there is no other heaven but 
such as we make ourselves. What afield for labor is 
this world, wherein we may build ourselves a heaven 



Kecitations. 71 

daily. How innumerable are a the ways of doing 
good ; how blessed are the rewards of such doing : 
and yet, few that try to do more than what the 
world calls duty ; how few love humanity as Jesus 
did — a love that makes them turn from all the honors 
of this world, for the sake of doing good in the hum- 
ble walks of life, as he did. 

Julia. — When men see the door that opens into 
heaven, will they enter therein? 

Mother. — Remember you can never reach heaven 
in any other way than by building it up within your- 
self. That is the only way to reach the abode of 
bliss. 

Julia. — Will not changing worlds take us there ? 

Mother. — Changing worlds will not take you there. 
You must make your own heaven by doing good be- 
cause it is right, and for your own happiness. Re- 
member this, and hasten to do thyself good, and be 
thankful that the ways are so many by which we can 
do it. 

Julia. — Mother, why do the churches complain of 
Spiritualism ? 

Mother. — Because they do not understand it. 
Their prejudices are so great that they will not inves- 
tigate. They are blinded by error, and do not see 
the truth, and they fear to come to the light, lest 
their creeds should be found in error, and their ig- 
norance reproved. 



72 Dialogues and 

Julia. — They say because we have no creed, we 
have nothing to build upon. 

Mother. — The truth is, our foundation is too broad 
for them to reach round it ; our religion too expan- 
sive for sectarians to circumscribe. Because Spirit- 
ualism is not local and dogmatic, does it follow that 
angel teachings signify nothing? 

Mary. — Is the march of mind onward and upward? 

Mother^ — Yes, and the ball is rolling ; and whoever 
dares put forth his hand to stop it, will be crushed 
by it. 

Julia. — They say evil spirits communicate. 

Mother. — So do evil men, but we are not bound by 
their councils. Shall we repudiate the post office be 
cause evil men mail letters? Men have evil creeds 
but we need not be bound by them. 

Mary. — Is good positive and truth eternal ? 

Mother. — Yes ; strange thoughts are finding their 
way from lips unaccustomed to uttering new ideas. 
These thoughts are startling the dreamy world. For 
time the human heart stands still, listens and won- 
ders ; a voice like the voice of God comes, saying, 
"Be not afraid, for I am speaking." 

Julia. — Will the brave and the true take heart? 

M oilier. — Yes, and be thankful for courage and 
light. 

Mary. — But what will the cowards do ? 



Eecitatioks. 73 

Mother. — They will listen and turn away, saying 
"These things may be true, but the world is not 
ready for them yet." 

Julia — Was the world ever ready for a new truth ? 
Was there ever a time when the independent thinker 
was not branded as an infidel ? 

Mother. — No, there never was a time when conser- 
vatism and old fogyism, in both politics and religion, 
did not stoutly oppose all reformation, condemn, and 
if they had the power, crucify the world's reformers. 

Mary. — Will the time come when the truth-seeker 
may learn of nature, a^d translate her laws, free from 
the influence of sectarian dogma, and the tyranizing 
power of priestcraft ? 

Mother. — Yes, we hope so ; but new ideas always 
come too soon for the convenience of old ones. Soc- 
rates told the truth too soon ; the Athenians were 
not ready to put away their idols, and worship at 
the shrine of scientific truth ; the philanthropic Jesus 
spoke the truth quite too soon, for the good opinion 
of the Jews. 

Julia. — Did all the ancients suffer persecution, that 
told a new truth ? 

Mother. — Yes ; Galileo subjected himself to the 
scorn and derision of the religious bigots of his day, 
to dungeon and to death, by not waiting their time. 

Luther sowed the seeds of sedition too soon. The 



74 Dialogues and 

mother church was not ready to hear her darling 
dogmas denounced. Our Puritan fathers put forth 
their noble efforts to establish independence, all too 
soon for the accommodation of George the Fourth. 
The Quakers, Baptists and Methodists, all preached 
their new doctrines too soon to avoid suffering and 
persecution. 

Mary. — Is it not strange that the fanatics will dis- 
turb the quiet of the world? 

Mother. — Franklin sent forth his kite and ques- 
tioned the lightning, but the righteous world de- 
nounced the blasphemer ; they were not ready to 
hear a man talk of saving buildings, that God in his 
wrath had destined to be destroyed by fire. 

Julia. — Is it not a pity Franklin was born so soon 
by a hundred years? Now the lightnings of heaven 
are running along countless wires, praising and glo- 
rifying his name. 

Mother. — Fitch and Fulton were fanatics. They 
told steam stories long before the people could compre- 
hend them. Andrew Jackson Davis proclaimed the 
doctrine of Spiritualism quite too soon ; the Chiistian 
world, all alarmed, cries, "Hold ! hold ! you demol- 
ish our hell and our devil, and what have we left, with 
which to scare people into goodness, right and truth." 
Notwithstanding their cry, that spirits cannot come, 
they intuitively know that spirits do communicate, 



Kecitatio^s. 75 

and that their mission is to demolish all crafts and 
isms in the wide world. 

Mary. — They seem to be already terribly frighten- 
ed, lest Spiritualism succeed. 

Mother. — Yes, but the end is not yet ; their private 
sanctuaries will be invaded, their golden gods will be 
demolished, their darling dogmas will be taken away, 
and, with soul unmasked, they will be compelled to 
listen to the beautiful truths of Spiritualism ; learn its 
laws and obey its divine requirements. 

Julia. — Will not changing worlds take us to 
heaven ? 

Mother. — Changing worlds will not take you there. 
You must make your own heaven by doing good be- 
cause it is right, and for your own happiness. Re- 
member this, and hasten to do thyself good, and be 
thankful that the ways are so many by which you can 
do it. 

Julia. — Mother, why do the churches complain of 
Spiritualism ? 

Mother. — Because they do not understand it. 
Their prejudices are so great that they will not inves- 
tigate. They are blinded by error, and do not see 
the truth, and they fear to come to the light, lest 
their creeds should be found in error, and their ig- 
norance reproved. 

Julia. — But Christians are not ready for this terri- 
ble overthrow; they say, "perhaps spirits do commu- 



76 Dialogues and 

nicate, but we are not ready to listen to their teach- 
ings, and, besides, it is not popular to be a Spiritual- 
ist." What then is to be done? 

Mother. — If popularity is to be the guide rather 
than truth and right, nothing can be done but 
to hush the voice of reason — be false — live a lie — 
bow like the veriest' menial before the merciless task 
master, public opinion — put on the strait jacket oi 
the law — put a seal to your lips, and fetters upon the 
soul, and sit down quietly and contentedly, and wait 
the world's time for the advent of peace, justice, free- 
dom and truth, and see how you will come out. 
Sluggards will only do this. Humanity's progress is 
as certain as its life and growth. Angel friends will 
aid in the world's advancement, and the ultimate tri- 
umph of spiritual freedom to all. 



Recitations. 77 



The Seeds and the Sowers- 

Ever so little the seed may be, 

Ever so little the hand, 
But when it is sown it must grow, you see, 
And develop its nature, weed, flower or tree ; 
The sunshine, the air and the dew are free 

At its command. 

If the seed be good, we rejoice in hope 

Of the harvest it will yield ; 
We wait and watch for its springing up, 
Adm're its growth and count on the crop 
That will come from the little seeds we drop 

In the great wide field. 

But if we heedlessly scatter wide 

Seeds we may happen to find, 
We care not for culture or what may betide, 
We sow here-and-there on the highway side — 
Whether they've lived or whether they've died, 

We never mind. 

Yet every sower must one day reap 

Fruit from the seed he has sown. 

How carefully, then, it becomes us to keep 

A watchful eye on the seed, and seek 

To sow what is good, that we may not weep 
To receive our own ! 



CHAPTER III. 



A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AUNT CHLOE AND HER, 
NEPHEW AND NIECE — THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE 
— A CONVERSATION — BENEVOLENCE — A SURE 
GUIDE. 



A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AUNT CHLOE AND 
HER NEPHEW AND NIECE. 

Aunt Chloe. — Emery and Anna, what of these re- 
forms that are making so much stir in the world. 

Emery. — Aunt, what reform is it you are so alarm- 
ed about? 

Aunt CI doe. — It is said there are many reforms — 
there is the Land reform, the School reform, the 
temperance reform, the Women's Rights reform and 
many others. 

Anna. — Aunt, what would you have us do here in 
this back corner of creation ? 

Aunt Chloe. — Why, we must lay hold of some 
wheel and push or pull, and try to keep out of the 
way, for the machine is drawn by attraction, of no 
less power than God Almighty, and stay it we can- 
not, for it is destined to cover the world ; the multi- 
tude now clog the wheels and throw it off the track. 



Eecitatioks. 79 

but by some unseen power it flies back and on it goes 
right over them. 

Emery. — Well, and if the reform must go on 
where can we get hold to do the most good? It oc- 
curs to me, that self reform would be the most effec- 
tual, that is propelled by the power of the will, and 
we can keep a share of that ourselves. 

Aunt (Jhloe. — People are getting to be mighty gen- 
erous these days, they give away all of their reforms ; 
there is neighbor A, he talks about Land reform, but 
how will he get at it ? If y« u give young men all 
their land, and they have nothing to do to earn it, it 
will encourage them to be idle ; he is honest in think- 
ing they had better work and get it as he did, so he 
is behind the times, and he must be reformed. 
Neighbor B, he talks about the School reform ; he 
thinks it would all be well enough if it would do any 
good, but learning is so cheap 'now, the manner of in- 
struction so easy, and all paid at the expense of the 
public, that their time seems worth nothing to them, 
so they idle it away, and when it becomes necessary 
to write a letter, they must go to their grandmother 
to know how to spell ! He thinks if they had to do 
as he did — go to work and roll up their log school 
houses ; raise grain to pay their teacher, and study 
their lessons by fire-light, they would prize their 
learning more. So he is behind the times, and he 



80 Dialogues and 

■must be reformed. Neighbor C, he talks about 
woman's rights ; he thinks the women have all the 
rights they are entitled to, and if they had any more, 
there would be no living with them. Mrs. C says 
she has all the rights she wants, and she don't know 
but everybody elee has as many as she has, at any 
rate, she don't care to trouble herself about her neigh- 
bor's affairs, so you see they are all behind the times 
and must be reformed. 

Anna. — Aunt, have you learned any more about 
those reforms you was telling us about last week? 

AuntChloe. — Yes, the world is all alive with reform, 
women know more than the men ; wives more than 
their husbands ; children more than their parents, 
and the niggers more than the white folks ! When 
I was young there was not such a fuss about wo- 
man's rights, the women they cooked the victuals, 
washed t^e clothes, spun and wove, tended the ba 
bies, obeyed their husbands, read the bible and 
psalm book, went to meeting on Sunday and helped 
pay the preacher, and that was enough, they <lid not 
think for themselves as they do nowadays, the 
preacher told them what to do, and they did it. 
Paul said, "if a woman would know anything let her 
ask her husband at home." 

Emery. — Aunt, don't you think there is need of 
reform ? 



Kecitatioks. 81 

Aunt Chloe. — What kind of reform ? 
Anna, — A religious reform. 

Aunt Chloe. — A religious reform ! a reform in re 
ligion ! horrible ! how absurd ! Religion is the same, 
yesterday, to-d^y and forever. There is no new 
thing in religion, but there is need of a revival. 

Emery. — You mean revive up the old one, do 
you ? What do you call a revival ? 

Aunt Chloe. — Why, repent of your sins, get religion 
and prepare to go to heaven. 

Anna. — Aunt, where do you suppose heaven is? 
Christ said, "the kingdom of heaven is within 
you.' 1 

Aunt Chloe. — I never saw anything like it ! how 
inquisitive people are getting to be now-a-days, they 
must know all the whys and wherefores about a thing 

Jimery. — And is that the reform ? 
Aunt Chloe. — What, eveiybody speak for themselves, 
think for themselves and act for themselves; that 
would be a mighty reform, and what would become 
of the priests, they would have nothing to do. 

Anna. — Oh yes, Aunt, enough to do, if they only 
had a mind to do it. 

Aunt Chloe.— What is it ? 

Anna. — Work in nature's garden — sow the seed of 
love — pull up the weeds of discord, and pick the fruit 
of harmony. 



82 Dialogues akd 

Aunt Chloe. — That is very appropriate business for 
the servants of the Lord, but who will do it. 

Emery. — All true reformers. 

Aunt Chloe. — That certainly looks rational. I 
know we read the time would come when the lion 
and the lamb would lie down together. 

Anna. — Is not that the Millenium the church has 
prayed for so long. 

Aunt Chloe.— What! the Millenium come and the 
church not know it? Can we have a imlleniuin, and 
no judgment before hand ? 

Emery. — Yes, everybody judges themselves; you 
know Christ said, "out of thine own mouth will I 
judge thee." 

Aunt Chloe. — And there is the work of saving 
souls, that is the work of the church ; they have been 
laboring and praying many years, that God would 
in his own set time favor Zion, and bring all to a 
knowledge of the truth. 

Anna. — Well, I think their God will be angry with 
them for teazin^ him so Ions:, to do what he has told 
them to do. 

Aunt Chloe. — But we must pray with submission 
and wait God's time. He will in his own good time 
favor Zion. The church must do that work, if it is 
done at all ; other societies may be good in their place, 



Eecitatioks. 83 

if they have any place, but "God will be inquired of 
by the house of Israel, to do these things for them, 5 ' 
so says the servant of the Lord. 

Emeiy. — If they have labored and praytd so many 
years and have not liberated one poor sinner from his 
past sins, I am afraid it will never be done. 

Aunt Ghloe. — Don't you suppose G-od loves the 
church ? 

Anna. — Yes, his church. 

Aunt Ghloe.— Who do you call his church ? 

.Emery. — All that love to do good to their fellow 
men, and do unto others as they would have others 
do unto them. 

Aunt Ghloe. — Without signing any creed ? That 
would be a queer church, and no church at all. 

Anna. — Aunt, have you learned any more about 
those reforms ? 

Aunt Ghloe. — Yes, they are getting up a reform in 
religion. I supposed religion would endure for etern- 
ity without change. 

Emery. — Yes, Aunt, there are a great many kinds 
of religion. 

Aunt Ghloe. — A great many kinds of religion ! 
What do you mean by that ? Would you s^ay there 
are a great many ways to get to heaven ? There is 
only one way and that is through Jesus. 

Anna. — Yes, Aunt, we make our own heaven or 
hell. 



84 Dialogues anp 

Aunt Chloe. — What! make your own heaven, and 
no Jesus as your saviour? You scare me. You are 
all getting to be infidels ! 

Emery. — Infide 1 , that is nothing, only a person 
who does not accept your notion of things, that is 
all. 

Aunt Chloe. — Well, well, I think these reforms 
have swadowed up everything — heaven and hell, God 
and the devil ; they make heaven out to be nothing 
but a condition, and hell no where, only a guilty con- 
science, a v >d God no person, only the life of all things, 
dwelling in all things ; and the devil they have buried 
and preached his funeral sermon, and we have noth- 
ing left now to worship but humanity. 

Anna. — Oh yes, Aunt; God is in humanity. 

Aunt Chloe. — The Bible says man was made in 
the image of God; but you say God is made in the 
image of man, or that we imagine our own God. 

Emery. — Yes, Aunt; God is our highest ideal of 
goodness, benevolence and purity. 

Aunt (J hi »e. — Is that all the God there is, in your 
opinion? The Bible says God is in heaven, sitting 
on a great white throne, ;v d Jesus at his light hand 
and all the world will be brought up before him to 
judgment, and he will say unto the righteous, "Come 
thou blessed, sit on my right h ml," ami to the wiek- 
ed, "Depart, ye cursed; go on the left hand, into 



Recitations. 85 

everlasting torments' prepared for you before the 
foundation of the world." 

Anna. — What, before they had committed any 
actual transgression ? 

Aunt Chloe. — Yes, God elected some to everlast- 
ing life, and others to everlasting destruction. 

Emery. — Without any merit or demerit of their 
own? 

Aunt Chloe. — Does not the Bible say, "Hath not 
the potter power over the clay, to make one vessel 
to honor and another to dishonor V\ 

Anna. — Then if God made us iust what we are, 
whose fault is it ? 

Aunt Chloe. — Oh, this carnal reason, to pry into 
the mysteries of God. 

Emery. — What is reason given us for? Should 
we not use it ? 

Aunt Chloe. — Yes, when you transact business of 
this world ; in agriculture, in mechanism, in science 
and in arts ; but not in religion. You must take 
that on faith. 

Anna. — Then you would have us go blind in 
religion. 

Aunt Chloe. — No, take God's word, the Bible ; 
that will tell you all you. need to know. 

Emery. — But God never wrote any book ; God's 
word is everywhere, and all things speak of the wis- 
dom of the Creator. 



86 Dialogues axd 

Aunt Chloe. — Dare you say the Bible is not God's 
word ? 

Anna. — Oh yes, Aunt ; there are a great many 
Bibles; they all have some truth, and all truth ig 
God's word. 

Aunt Chloe. — I think you must be good chemists ; 
you have analyzed all things down to nothing; and 
now you would make the Bible out only a history ot 
past events. 

Emery. — Oh no, Aunt, there are some prophesies 
of future events, and some traditional myths in the 
bible. 

Aunt Chloe. — Oh children, if we throw away the 
Bible, we have nothing left to guide us ! We shall 
be worse than the heathen! T\ T e are dependent on 
that for all our civilization. 

Anna. — No, Aunt, science makes civilization. All 
the improvements of this nineteenth century are 
the product of science and human energy. 

Aunt Chloe. — But that is in worldly things. You 
must not mix worldly thing's with religion. 

Emery. — But science 1 makes bibles every few gen- 
erations — makes a new one or alters the old one; 
this generation lias found over twenty thousand mis- 
takes in our Bible, that modern Christians boast of. 

A a nt Chloe. — Well ! well! it is said that old 
things would pass away, and all things become new, 
and J am beginning 1<> think it will be so, for they do 



Recitations. 87 

say that the dead come back and talk to folks, and 
tell them about things in the other world. 

Anna. — Yes, Aunt, the angels have come, the 
gates of heaven are open, they have come to teach 
us to dispense with all forms and ceremonies, and live 
in spirit and in truth. 

Aunt Chloe. — That does look like the time that 
Jesus talked about, "when all shall know the Lord 
from the least to the greatest, and the saints shall 
possess the whole earth." 

PART SECOND. 

Emery. — Aunt, we Have come again to talk about 
these reforms. 

Aunt Chloe. — Well, they have got up a reform in 
religion, and they throw away the Bible. That book 
is all we have to guide us in this world, and teach us 
concerning the next. It tells us how the world was 
made, how God created man and all things, and pro- 
nounced it all very good. 

Anna. — Yes, and the Bible says, too, it repented 
God that he had made man, and it grieved him to 
the heart. 

Aunt Chloe — You must not doubt the Bible ; re- 
member he that doubts is damned. The Bible says 
Adam had two sons, Cain and Abel; that God re- 
spected Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offer- 
ing he did not respect ; and Cain got angry with 



88 Dialogues and 

Abel, his brother, and k ; lled him ; and the Lord was 
angry with Cain, and set a mark upon him, that oth- 
ers finding him might not kill him. Some people 
say God cursed him and made him b'ack, but the 
negro says he scared him and turned him white. 

Anna. — But who was there to kill him when he 
had killed Abel, and he was the only one left ! 

Aunt Chloe. — My child, the Bible does not say 
who would execute the Lord's vengeance, and we 
must not be wise above what is written. The Bible 
says Cain went to the land of Nod and got him a wife. 

Emery. — How could he find him a wife in the land 
of Nod, or any other place, when Cain and his pa- 
rents were the only people on earth ? 

Aunt Chloe. — You must not query with the Bible. 
Remember it is God's truth ; that is one of the mys- 
teries ; it is all given for our instruction, and were it 
not for the Bible, we should all be heathen. 

Anna. — Heathen ! who are heathen ? 

Aunt phloe. — Those who do not worship the true 
God. 

Emery. — Who worships the true God? Who 
knows what God is, or where! Who can compre- 
hend him ? Then are we not all heathen ? 

Aunt Chloe. — The Bible says God is a spirit, and 
dwells in Light, and no man hath seen God at any 
time. 



Recitations. 89 

Anna. — Yes, but Jesus says, "They that have seen 
me have seen the Father, and they- that love me, 
dwell in me, and I in them 

Aunt Chloe. — So God dwells in all humanity, does 
he ? Is that your religion ? 

Emery. — That is the new religion. 

Aunt Chloe. — What do you call it? 

Anna. — Spiritualism. 

Aunt Chloe. — Spiritualism! what is that? 

Anna. — The philosophy of Spiritualism embraces 
the whole domain of mind, including God, angels 
and mortals. It explains the relation of cause and 
effect — the nacuralness, duality, oneness and divinity 
of life — the condition of spirit life, and the relations 
existing between mortals and all the higher states of 
existence. It demonstrates the future and eternal 
progress of the whole race ; that the departed live ; 
that man is immortal ; that angels come as guardians 
and guides over the highways of eanh ; that death 
is but the door to eternity, where the departed wait 
to greet all earth's wanderers home. 

Aunt Chloe. — But has Spiritualism done any good ? 

Emery. — Yes, great good. It has brought heaven 
down to where we can understand it ; it has brought 
hell up to where we can comprehend it ; it makes the 
knave an honest man ; it makes the oppressor a hu- 
mane man ; it makes the egotist a humble man ; it 
makes the cross and unkind husband and father a 



90 Dialogues and 

kind and affectionate man ; it makes the child loving 
and obedient to its parents ; it makes the drunkard 
a sober man ; it makes the bad good, and the good 
better ; it makes one universal family of God's chil- 
dren ; it inspires us to do justly, love mercy, and 
walk humbly ; in short, it brings heaven down to 
earth, and it raises earth up to heaven. Is not that 
doing good. 

Aunt Chloe. — Well, go on, and I will join you, 
heart and hand. Let your motto be, free and frater- 
nal with all, responsible for none — conscience your 
creed — truth your search — the inculcation of spirit- 
ual graces your aim — the world your church — angels 
your ministers — God your great high priest, and the 
dawn of this harmonic age your hope for humanity. 

THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE. 

Emma. — How true that a life is real, life is earn- 
est," and each soul alone can know its own sorrows 
and conflicts. 

Helen. — But where are our severest trials? 

Emma. — Our severest battles are within our- 
selves, in the inner chamber of our being, where 
God and angels are our only witnesses. 

Helen. — Then who is best prepared to judge us? 

"Emma. — Ad enlightened conscience is our only 
judge ; or in other words, we judge ourselves. 

"Helen. — Arc nil our trials designed for our good? 



Eecitations. 91 

Emma. — All these conflicts have some high and 
holy use, which we are often unable to see, but in 
good time they bring profitable lessons. 

Helen. — Where are our deepest thoughts and 
emotions ? 

Emma. — Our deepest thoughts and emotions are 
hidden from human s'ght, and angels alone can see 
and administer the solace we sometimes need. 

Helen. — Why should we be tormented with afflic- 
tion ? 

.Emma. — Every scene and event in life, however 
full of sorrow and affliction, has its influence on us, 
and that influence becomes a discipline which event- 
uates in our good. 

Helen. — Should we live for ourselves alone ? 

Emma.— .No, but for the highest good of all ; for 
ourselves and others as one, yet we must be true to 
ourselves or we can be of little service to others, or 
of much value to society. 

Helen. — How will suffering benefit us ? 

Emma. — Suffering will result in the harmonious 
growth of our individual selves, from the interior of 
our being, with outward unfoldment of our nature, so 
that on the calm brow of the suffering will play the 
pure light of charity and love. 

Helen. — Will the honest, sincere soul ever feel 
condemnation ? 

Emma. — No, the true in heart, just in action, in- 



92 Dialogues axd 

nocent in soul, can never taste the bitterness o 
condemnation, because they have not deserved it ; 
but they will love and trust humanity and the 
angels, and be happy, as will all who observe the 
great lessons which experience alone can impart. 

Helen. — Do the highest spirits come to earth to 
teach us ? 

Emma. — The more refined spirits soar above the 
mass of mind in the earth's sphere ; hence as knowl- 
edge is imparted to us, it must "come through the 
lower order of intelligence. Were it Liven direct 
from the higher, we would be unable to under- 
stand it. 

Helen. — Can we all understand alike? 

Emma. — Xo ! all minds measure according to 
their capacity and unfoldment. 

Helen. — Is it strange then that persons reject 
whatever is beyond their own capacity ? 

Emma. — It is not strange. We measure all from 
our own standpoint; and judging from the surround- 
ings, and thinking what we would do, we feel sine 
others would do the same. Thus from our plane we 
reflect our own shadow. When we understand the 
laws which govern all m< tivos and actions, we shall 
blame less and strive the more to develop the good 
and true in man and woman. 

Helen. — Does the spiritual mind discern more 
clearly than the earthly mind? 



Recitations. 93 

Emma — The spiritual recognizes the angel in 
every man, however vile in thought or vagabond in 
life; in every worna , however degraded or fallen in 
sinks of iniquity ! " And now abideth faith, hope, 
and charity, but the greatest of these is charity." 

Helen — What religion do we most need ? 

Emm /. — We want a religion that inculcates 
righteousness so univers il and practical that every 
one can understand it. A religion that shows forth 
its usefulness by tangible good works. 

Helen. — You mean one that the merchant can 
take with him to the counting room, and use it in 
all business transactions; one that the lawyer can 
take with him into court, refer to it as his law book, 
preventing him from defending the known guilty 
under promise of good pay; one that the farmer 
can take with him into the field as he follows the 
plough, and make him merciful to his beast ; one 
that the mechanic can take with him into the shop^ 
to make his work upon honor. 

Emma. —There is just such a religion revealed to 
every one who will study the text book of his own 
nature. 

Helen. — Is reflection necessary to mental and 
spiritual growth ? 

Emm /. — When we reflect that we are progressive 
beings — that we can Jcnoio nothing without mental 
labor ; that whatever greatness we attain is only by 



94 Dialogues and 

and through the growth of spirit, who will say we 
have no need of spiritual teachers ? 

Helen. — Are we all destined to progress ? 

Emma. — When our tottering infant feet were first 
moved on the long journey of life, we were helped ; 
it may be by the humblest and ignorant. 

Helen. — Then we can learn something from every 
one ? 

Emma. — Our untaught minds were tasked to call 
by name the first letters of the alphabet, and 
remember their characters ; the infant foot, at first 
put forth with trembling, now steps firmly ; and the 
mind that then knew not why it learned to call 
those letters and trace those dark and crooked out- 
lines, now takes strong hold of thought, grapples 
boldly with principles, and aspires to teach the 
world eternal truths ! 

Helen. — Should we despise the day of small 
things ? 

Emma — It then it is by the humblest aids, we 
are led on step by step to mental greatness, it is 
reasonable to conclude thai spiritual greatness is 
similarly attained. 

Helen. — Then we bave need of, and should 
value every aid, however imperfect and insignificant 
it majr seem, so that alter attaining spiritual great. 
ness we cannot look back upon them and say we 

had DO need of them. 



Eecitatioks. 95 

Emma. — Is not the idea of mutual help a glorious 
thought ? 

Helen. — Yes, indeed ; and what would poor hu- 
manity do without this reciprocating feeling of 
assistance, so heavenly and so human ? Causing 
sunshine to enter and permeate so many human 
lives ! But can we attain spiritual greatness all at 
once ? 

Emma. — No ! no more than full physical growth 
can be reached in a day. All mental and spiritual 
attainments, in this world or any other world, must 
be by the law of growth and progress. 

Helen. — So the first taste of spiritual life, perhaps, 
was imbibed from the simple teaching of a beautiful 
flower — a sweet child — or some other natural mani- 
festation of nature and God ! 

Emma. — Y« s, therefore the one that unfolds the 
little flower in this sphere, will ever continue to 
develop in life's higher stages of growth where forms 
are only visible to the spirit eye. 

Helen. — Can man ever enter a sphere of life, with- 
out finding the representation of all the kingdoms 
of life below him % 

Emm . — No ! But the objector may ask, what use 
will there be in the spirit world for the lower forms 
of matter? I would ask of what use are they here, 
and of what use is man ? Every form has its use, its 
sphere to fill, in the great panorama of life. If we 



96 Dialogues ais t d 

deny the eternal existence of any form, we have no 
assurance that the spirit of man is immortal, for if 
there is a law by which one spirit form can be des- 
troyed, or pass a*- ay, the same law holds good in 
regard to man, and he too may be annihilated, or 
lose his identity, in passing to another condition of 
existence. 

Helen. — Are we brought to the conclusion, then, 
that man is immortal ? 

Emma. — Spirit has ever existed, and through the 
countless ages of the jDast, has been active in unfold- 
ing various forms in the different spheres of life. 

Helen. — Does the spirit form change like the body 
and crumble away ? 

Emma. — No ! The action of mind or spirit in 
thought, according to growth, will continue to 
change, but its identity is eternally fixed. 

Helen. — Will man be anything more or less than 
man, in spirit life ? 

Emma. — We know that by the laws of nature he 
will continue to uphold, to rise higher and higher in 
the scale of intelligence and moral brightness, but 
that changing his identity in passing into another 
form is impossible. 

Helen. — Why should we prize life? 

Ernmt. — Because of its mani'bld bf auties, bless- 
in--, friendships, loves, and all the glorious realiza- 
tions it promisee in a never ending spirit existence. 



Becitatiosts. 97 

Helen. — Can spirits aid and comfort ns in suffering 
and woe 1 

Emma. — Yes, in communion with angels we can 
often receive aid and sympathy nowhere else found ; 
they walk by our side — take us by the hand — wipe 
the tears from our eyes — sweep away the clouds 
gathering around death, and gladly welcome us to 
the land ot the blest. 

A CONVERSATION. 

Fred. — Good morning, Frank. I have called to 
see you, to talk over matters generally, and have a 
nice time. I have been down to the Spiritualists' 
National Convention, at Richmond, Ind.; saw many 
nice people, and heard many smart speeches. I wish 
you could have been there ; you might have heard 
some things to your advantage. 

Frank. — I tell you how it is, Fred : I have no 
sympathy with Spiritualism or Spiritualists. They 
are a low, contemptible set of despicable hypocrites. 
They are trying to destroy all that is sacred in so- 
ciety — the Sabbath, and the Bible, and the God 
we worship. Their mediums are a set of wandering 
vagabonds, pretending to be controlled by spirits 
when it is the spirit of the devil from the infernal 
pit ! The Bible says, Go not after them, nor follow 
them, nor bid them "God speed. 5 ' I profess to be a 



98 Dialogues axd 

Christian, and belong to^the church; that is good 
enough for me. I feel it beneath the dignity 
of a gentleman, to condescend to investigate such 
low, miserable trash. None bnt half-shattered, brain 
less dupes will have anything to do with it. I would 
not risk my reputation to be seen in sucii company ! 
Fred. — You doubtless feel, my brother, that all are 
ace >untable to Grod and their own consciences, for 
the deeds done here in the body. Have you reflect 
ed that you, also, are responsible for disputing the 
revelation ol spirits, without being able to success- 
fully deny their claims to credulity ? Have you re- 
ally felt that in condescending to investigate the 
truths which are given from the s irit world, you 
would disgrace your Christian profession ? You have 
condescended to disregard the philosophy of heaven 
and reject the outpouring of truth to your own soul. 
You have condescended to villify mediums, and slander 
those whom angels have chosen to give truth to their 
fellow men. You have chosen to stand upon your 
own supposed dignity, and you will learn that such a 
foundation is not safe, when you enter the pure 
spheres from which emanate the hallowed influence 
of angel purity and love. Have you a moral or re- 
ligious right to deny the alleged facts which others, 
have discovered? Is it consistent with your faith 
and conscience, to repudiate the sincere and positive 



Eecitatioks. 99 

testimony that Spiritualism is true, of those whose 
veracity you allow on all other matters ? If you do 
not knoio they are mistaken, why do you pronounce 
it a delus'on? If you have not the evidence of can- 
did investigation, why do you reject the testimony of 
unimpeachable witnesses ? You will be called upon, 
at the bar of your own conscience, impartial justice 
and truth, to decide this matter. You have a re- 
sponsibility in the matter, and I hope you will meet 
it like a man. 

Aider James. — Fred, do be patient with Frank ; 
he is just as good as he possibly can be, considering 
his education and surroundings. Was he on a more 
elevated plane of life, his thoughts, feelings and as- 
pirations, would be of a more elevated character. 
All communications take the shape of the vessel 
through which they flow. If his condition is low, 
low thoughts come to his mind. He is more to be 
pitied than blamed. As he becomes more pure, and 
better informed — less of the gross and more of the 
spiritual — he will be more in harmony with the di- 
vine. He will perceive that inner light that safely 
guides the pure in heart, and then he will learn to 
investigate »11 things before condemning any. 



100 Dialogues axd 

A CONVERSATION PART SECOND. 

James. — I have been out in the country, and saw 
them make garden, and I think we might have one. 

Mother. — I have often thought of it, and wished 
we could have one. You know I am not well 
enough to work in the garden, and I did not sup- 
pose you was big enough. 

James. — If you will go out and show me, I guess 
I can do the work. It may do you good to get out 
doors and take the fresh air. 

Mother. — You must rake off the ground and bury 
the old bones and chips in one corner. Then we 
will get a man to spade up the ground. 

James. — Yes, and I can lay out the beds, and sow 
the seeds as I saw them do it in the country. You 
get me a little hoe and shovel, mother, and I will 
try it. 

Mother. — When I was a little girl and lived at 
home, we girls always made the garden after it was 
ploughed and ban-owed. Father was so busy get- 
ting in the crops lie could never spend time. 

James. — Oh, how glad 1 am that you know how, 
so that you can show me, ami we will have a nice 
garden now. I will sow the seeds if you will tell 
me what to sow. 

Mother.- It makes me feel as if I was a girl again 



Eecitatioks. 101 

to see such a nice garden, and work in one as I used 
to do. 

James. — I will sow the peas in drills one side ; 
make the middle into beds; tread out the paths, 
and leave a broad aisle all around the outside. 

Mother. — Oh, James, how nice it is ; I did not 
think you could do so well. This proves we never 
know what we can do until we try. But we have 
no corn or beans. 

James. — There is a spot for them ; it is very rich, 
and they will grow nice. 

Mother. — You can put beans with the corn, and 
peas with the potatoes, so they will ueed no bush- 
ing. You can put peas on one side of the path and 
beans on the other, and when the early onions are 
pulled you can set out turnips. 

James. — So we will have all kinds, won't wet I 
want plenty of beans, for they are good winter and 
summer, and it is so nice to have them for breakfast 
or dinner. 

Mother. — Now, my little farmer, I feel proud of 
you. I see you have resolved to become a useful 
man, and I can hardly feel now that I am a widow. 

BENEVOLENCE. 

Mother. — My children, I have been thinking about 
benevolence. Can you tell me what it is ? Susan, 
what do you call benevolence ? 



102 Dialogues axd 

Susan. — There are many things called benevo- 
lence which do not seem to be that at all. Giving 
to the poor is called benevolence, but it is not so in 
all cases. Many are poor because they do not make 
good use of their time. Time is money when put to 
a good use. It is often the case, that the poor 
spend more idle hours than the rich, then they are 
not apt to be so saving. They are olten extravagant 
and go beyond their means. They do not usually 
study economy. They often complain they cannot 
get lucrative employment; doubtless it is so in 
many cases. Then they have not the means to go 
into business, so they can held themselves. 

Mary. — Mother, it is said by the Church, that 
giving money to send missionaries to the heathen is 
benevolence ? But who are heathens ? Those who 
do not understand the true God ? Who does under- 
stand what God is? Who can comprehend God? 
Are we not then all heathen ? If we send our 
money to the heathen, where shall we send it? If 
the heathen are those who do not believe in the 
bible, — what bible? Whose bible? There are a 
great many bibles ; they all have some truth. All 
truth is God's bible. If the heathen are those who 
do not belong to the church, — which church ? If 
the Ileal lien are those who live in ignorance and 
superstition, are they not all about us? Who is free 



Recitations. 103 

from it ? Shall we look to China for heathen ? 
There are no heathen there. They have books from 
the smallest pamphltts up to an encyclopedia of five 
thousand volumes. Are they ignorant of religion ? 
They follow Confucius ; Jesus only reiterated his 
precepts. "Do unto others as you would that they 
should do unto you.' 1 It is not benevolence to send 
missionaries to them. 

Clara. — Mother, it is called Christian benevolence 
to hire preachers to save souls. But whose soul is 
to be lost ? and how and when are they lost? What 
is soul ? Is it the covering of the immortal spirit 1 
Then can it be lost ? Are they lost from a knowl- 
edge of right from wrong ? They never have found 
it; they need instruction; they are ignorant and 
undeveloped. But how can we be saved, and what 
shall we be saved from ? What kind of salvation do 
we need, and how can we attain it I Is it not salva- 
tion from ignorance, to gain knowledge ? Salvation 
from folly, to gain wisdom ? Salvation from sin, to 
care to do wrong and learn to do right? Salvation 
from stupidity, to learn to think ? Is it not true 
benevolence at least to ourselves to gain ail tne 
knowledge we can, and make the best use of it, and 
try to help others to do so ? 

Mother. — My children, it is no benevolence to 
bestow upon others that which costs us nothing ; it 



104 Dialogues anp 

is no benevolence to do good to be seen or get the 
praise of others. There is no virtue in selfishness. 
Benevolence consists in being kind, loving and 
charitable to all, whether rich or poor ; looking for 
the best good of all humanity ; making sacrifices 
cheerfully for the good of others, and doing good 
because it's right, and for our own soul's good. 

A SURE GUIDE. 

On the great prairies of the far West, grows a lit- 
tle blossom called the "Compass Flower." You 
have seen a compass have you not, my little Mends, 
with its needle always pointing northward ? Like 
the needle of the compass, this little flower turns 
always to the North, never failing to guide the tra- 
veler aright ; no matter how thick the clouds are, if 
he can find one of these little plants he is sure to 
find his way. Do you not think it nice to have such 
a little sn\ nt, pretty guide ? I think so, and I think 
it very nice that you and I have a compass to guide, 
though not just like that little flower, but a better 
one, because it is always with us, and guides us just 
as truly. We do not call it " compass flower," we 
call it Conscience ; and it tells us very surely which 
way to go. If we go where it guides, it always gives 
us its approval, and makes us happy; but if we go 
different from where it directs as, we always feel 
guilty and unhappy. Then let us take good heed to 



Kecitatiosts. 105 

our consciences, my little friends, that they may not 
condemn us. 



CLOSING LYCEUM SONG. 

Air. — " Crystal Fountain." 
1 
Our hearts are bound together, 
A chain of chaliced blooms, 
Wooing the dews of heaven, 

And rich in sweet perfumes 
The skill of angel fingers 

Combined the circlet fair, 
And bade us be love's lillies, 
The dusky earth shall wear. 
2 
We love our march and music, 

Our banners bright unfurled, 
Our Ipssods and our teachers, 

And all the great wide world. 
Our souls behold God"s goodness 

And blossom into prayer, — 
Prayer which shall speak in actions 
Of kindness everywhere. 
3 
We met with glances sparkling 
To touch the skirts of Truth, 
And plant the germs of wisdom 

Along the banks of youth. 
The brightly tinted roses 

Will bless us bye and bye, 
And our glad souls will wear them 
Through death iu victory. 
4 
rVe part, and may each member, 

Wherever he may go, 
Work for the poor and sinful, 
But keep as pure as snow ! 
Our confidence is boundless, 

For though we talk with men, 

Angel? will watch and guide us 

Until we meet again. 



Emma Tuttle. 



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